Category Archives: bi-polar

Dad, I killed the car!

Another day done. For the most part, I would call this day a success.

My girls, who have both been licensed to drive for less than 6 months killed the car tonight. They thought that they were in trouble, because it wouldn’t start… They walked home, then we went and got it after mom got home. A simple jump start cured it. Probably a weak alternator belt isn’t allowing enough juice to be generated, coupled with someone not shutting the door all the way and an interior light blinking occasionally. No big deal. And even so, if they had wrecked it or something, a car can be replaced.

Lined up another IEP meeting for our oldest boy. Next week unless something shakes loose in the schedule this week. Tomorrow, our youngest son and I are going into the city for a psych consult. Hopefully he can get back on the med that they took him off, clorazil.

Overall, the few times that our youngest was misbehaving aren’t worth noting. There has to be a point where some of his beavior is just because he is the baby in the family and acting as a 10 year old boy. Life is good.

That reminds me, I need to follow-up with the people regarding Respite care for our youngest. That will help alleviate some stresses in our family.

This weekend I am in Bismarck for a class, and he will get to spend a couple of hours with his mentor, and then his Aunt.

Waiting on a call from Department of Public Instruction regarding the facilitated IEP request that we made.  More tomorrow. 🙂 Cheers!

Greetings on a New Day.

As we start week 3 after placement back at home for our youngest, I am struck with awe about how he can be two completely different kids.  There is the David we see when all of the kids are home, and there is the David we see when he is one – on – one with us.

We had to complete our weekly blood draw to monitor the ANC levels of his blood.  One of the meds he was on while he was in the residential placement caused issues with is blood.  It is a known side affect.  Now that the levels are returning to normal, he is struggling to get over a chest cold and sinus infection, so hopefully he will be able to go back on the med.  He was so much more stable mentally when he was on it. We didn’t see the large peaks and valleys in his affect then.

Moving forward, my wife and I are on the mend.  I at least don’t feel like my head is going to explode with every movement anymore.

Today, as part of our education plan, we had an outing.  We caught a ride up town to the clinic this morning, and then walked home. Along the way, we stopped and visited with the man from the hardware store, and then stopped at his store and ordered a new dryer for mom.  While we were there, we asked a lot of questions about things, and generally just interacted with the wonderful people working there.  New dryer should be here later this week.

Then we took our new garbage can and walked home.  Along the way we worked on making sure that we crossed the street appropriately, and talked about snow and how snow flakes are formed.  It was a very productive morning for the little guy, and he asked a lot of really good questions.  Now time for some free time, and then lunch.

Still working on getting the facilitated IEP set up.

Day 8 ~ snot today I tell you, don’t suck it in, blow!

I would call it a night cap, but I don’t drink, so we will call it a recap. 🙂

Last night, I had to go through some of our youngest son’s stuff. I found 5 9-volt batteries, the lids of two cat food cans, 8 pens, 2 nail clippers, 1 bag of cough drops, 1 box of granola bars and a screw driver from my computer tech kit.  So we are back to hoarding things again.  Not sure why he feels it is necessary to do this.  But, he does have OCD so maybe that is the only explanation available.

This morning, we heard only one thing from the school principal after our response yesterday to the PWN.  And that was a response that indicated that she was out of the office until Friday morning.  It wasn’t an out of office responder from Outlook or anything like that.  I know what those look like, and this was definitely not that.  But it also makes no attempt to schedule anything for the coming week.  Maybe she is just going to wait until Friday and try again. I don’t know.

On another note, the school counselor is a family friend who is deeply religious.  A trait we find endearing.  He is being lambasted by the administrators for not participating in meetings and activities at the elementary school that he has effectively been thrown out of.  He is never told about these events in advance, and since he doesn’t maintain time at the elementary school except for Fridays, he is not attuned to what is going on in that building.  Yet, he is constantly being lambasted for not attending events in the elementary school.

Now, I understand the concept of two sides to every story.  But, given the way we know the school treats parents, isn’t it reasonable to assume the possibility that they treat their employees almost as bad or just as bad?

Ok. Enough about the school. 🙂 For right now anyway, I promise.

David, our youngest is still fighting his cold. He was up frequently during the night coughing.  Hard to convince him that if he wants to get better, he needs to spit out whatever he coughs up rather than just swallowing it.  Same with the nose, if you sneeze, don’t suck it back in… get a kleenex and blow it the rest of the way out.  I know, it’s gross, but how do I convince a 10 year old oppositional defiant child with OCD, ADHD and autism that it is better for him to get it out than keep it in?  He is absolutely miserable when he is sick.

Today has been a fairly good day so far, yet it is only noon.  Here is a cheer for continued positive behavior  on his part, and continued positive support on my side.

Now it is time to put a turkey in the oven. Hope your day rocks!