Fighting for Answers | Author Archives | Page 71carl, Author at Fighting for Answers

Health concerns – a new slant – Lupus and Fibromyalgia

So, having a child with serious mental health blessings can and does cause a lot of stress. How does one handle the stress? Now, add to that idea, major health issues in one parent that react very negatively to stress. I have Systemic Lupus and Fibromyalgia. I have other health concerns, but those are the biggies. As a result, I need a lot of rest. Because I have a child that has decided to force himself to vomit his meds up, I don’t get the normal 8 hours of sleep that others get. In order to combat the obvious health toll, I take frequent breaks. It helps to have supportive family members. It helps also to have committed agencies that support the family unit through mentoring services and respite care. Still, it takes a huge toll on the health. I used to participate in a weekly writing prompt. But had

Do special needs kids enrich parents’ lives?

No one who doesn’t have a child with special needs can possibly understand what parents who do are going through. But we often—after thanking our lucky stars that our children are okay–try to imagine how difficult caring for a special needs child must be and wonder how we’d handle it. I certainly do. And that’s why I was especially interested in a new study of parents of children with trisomy 13 or 18 (both are severe chromosomal abnormalities that usually kill children before their first birthday. And the children who survive often have significant physical and cognitive disabilities). Keep in mind that in almost every case, the chromosomal abnormality was picked up in a prenatal test and the parents had a chance to terminate the pregnancy, which is what most couples in this situation do. It’s probably a sign of some character defect on my part, but I’m pretty sure

frustrations at home – we need help

We have been struggling for two weeks with behaviors at home. David is having major issues with listening, with taking his meds as directed, with a lot of things. To the point where we hospitalized him. At this point, David is content to force himself to vomit his meds up every morning. This throws his whole day off. Why? He is on meds for ADHD, and mood stability. At night he is on meds to help him sleep. Without these meds, he is beyond uncontrollable. Our argument has always been that he needs the structure of school to be able to exist. On August 7th, we are meeting with our mediator and the school. There will be over 10 people at this meeting for our son. Things are escalating at home, and we aren’t entirely positive that he doesn’t need to live in a facility for care. He needs more