Day Twelve: We Begin our Third Week

I hope you had a good weekend... I sure did. My sister and brother-in-law came in from the frigid Minnesota to visit my mom and dad for a week, so I drove to their home in Monrovia, CA and spent the weekend catching up on the last three years of their lives. I cannot begin to tell you what a joy it was to have had such a focused, one-on-one time with them. The weekend absolutely flew by... the days felt like just hours.

Unfortunately for Mark, Bea, and Katie, it was a long hard weekend. Since we have weened Katie off of the Abilify, her emotional stability and psycho-somatic pains have all gone downhill fast and are at an all-time low. She spent much of the weekend angry, sassy, mean-spirited, and full of various body pains and tics. Even this morning after an entire nights sleep, she woke up saying she felt sick and was having a hard time breathing... and was very grumpy and whiny... but by the time she was in the car and eating breakfast, she was right-as-rain again... and we had a good drive.

Knowing we need to do something to help her, Mark and I agreed to see if we can start the Lithium medication this week... and I spoke to the medical staff this morning when I arrived. They have taken note of Katie's weekend and are going to see if they can speak with the neuro-psychiatrist today.

As an interesting note... an additional child in the program was discharged over the weekend, and two other children had to be hospitalized (they were harmful to either themselves or others and were put inpatient)... so Katie is one of only two children in the program today... so she is going to have an enormous amount of one-on-one scrutiny today.

Well, it is 8:38 AM.... the day is hardly begun, and I am already out of the shoot like a shot. I have MANY appointments to set up for Katie today... an MRI, an Ultrasound, a Sleep Deprived EEG... so I'd better get busy and start making my calls.

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Well, I made my calls... but couldn't schedule anything till I get official authorizations faxed to the correct departments running the tests... so I've got a delay until tomorrow. Oh well, I'm still VERY THANKFUL for insurance in this season.

Katie had a good day... but was extremely hyperactive... every specialist noted it on their charting for the day. It wasn't till we got in the car to drive home that Katie admitted that she didn't take her medicine this morning (even though I gave it to her and told her to take it)... so that explained her hyperactivity. Ugh... I MADE her take it in front of me before we got on the road. Me thinx I am going to stand and WATCH her swallow it before we leave the house tomorrow. (the lil' stinker).

On the way home I picked up the new Lithium medicine and will start that this evening. She will be starting out on a tiny dose... once at breakfast and again before bed. She still doesn't know about the upcoming blood tests which will be every Monday morning for the next few weeks. We decided not to tell her till we know if she tolerates it well... after all, if she doesn't, then we will need to find another medication in it's place... so no use scaring her about blood tests that may or may not be.

One happy note... the music teacher at UCLA contacted me today and said that Katie is very good at music and loves it (well, now that's no surprise to us). She said that she has a fund that she has been holding for such a time as this... when she finds a child so enthusiastic about music... she believes they will excel at an instrument. She asked if she could buy Katie an electric keyboard... it would be hers to keep... and would cost us nothing. I was speechless. She's not talking about a kids toy... this is a REAL keyboard. So.... it looks like we will be acquiring a keyboard in the next few days. Wow... just another fine example of God supplying more than our needs...

Well, Mark has gone overnight to a meeting and won't be home until tomorrow, so tonight it's Katie and I. I have agreed to let Katie sleep in bed with me... (what have I gotten myself into??)... so it should be a fun evening... well... at least an eventful one for sure.

Chow for now....
Susan