I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd updated here. I've been lazy with my blog and I apologize for that.
I finally heard back from C's doctor. She decided to take him off two of his meds; his mood stabilizers. I was okay with them taking him off some of the meds to see what would happen but wasn't too sure about taking him off of those specific ones. He had a few rough days while they weaned him off of them but then things seemed to level out. He actually had 2 really good months and we were even thinking that he might get to come home early. I was so excited and so was he. We really wanted him to be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Then things started going down-hill again. The mood stabilizers were completely out of his system and his moods were getting harder and harder for him to control. He started getting into more fights again and was still having trouble staying awake in the mornings. He stopped trying to get his work done at school. He just wasn't able to do what he needed to do. So, at our monthly meeting I asked them about the moods and if they felt he needed to be put on something else to help with that or if they thought it might just be a bad month and see what happened. They went with the latter but did make an adjustment to one of his meds to see if it would help him be more alert int he mornings. Another month went by without any improvement to his mood, but his mornings were going better, so I brought it up again at the monthly meeting. By this point, we were well aware that there was no chance of him coming home early. If he had continued to do as well as a few months ago, he most likely would have been home by the middle of this month.
I've been trying to stay positive about it all but some days that's really difficult. The last couple weeks have been really rough for me. I think the fact of him not coming home early has finally sunk in and it is just more than I can deal with some days; other days I do okay with it. I know he needs the help and he's in a safe place where they can adjust and change his meds without me having to worry about him getting violent again and the chance of suicide are less there where he is monitored around the clock.
The night of our last meeting, I got a call from the doctor. She decided to start him back on a mood stabilizer. Now the waiting has begun again. It can take up to a month to see the full effect of the new med and know if it needs to be increased or not. It probably will need to be adjusted some before they get it just right but all we can do for now is wait and see. So far there doesn't seem to be much change but we've still got about 3 weeks before we can do much else.
He did move up to 7th grade. Barely. So far his grades are okay. He's far from being a straight A student but he didn't have any F's this go-around, so I'm happy. It's progress. He's able to stay awake in the mornings now and isn't fighting getting up and moving. He is still having some trouble with staying on-task though and will simply "zone out" from time to time during classes, even if the teacher or aide is right there with him. This isn't something new, it's just another of the things he does. I'm not sure what to do about that. I know there's another med that could be added to his ADHD medicine to help but that's another pill he'd have to take, another med to watch for side effects, unknown long-term effects, more dose adjustments. I think we'll just hold off on that until this other med is in his system good and go from there. Hopefully we won't have to add yet another pill to his list.
So, right now we're looking at him staying until at least January. Hopefully he will make enough progress to come home then so that we can all get on with our lives. Together.
