Special Needs Adoption, Adopting Special Needs - Trips to the Psychiatrist Always Offer New Hope

10/02/07

Trips to the Psychiatrist Always Offer New Hope

Posted by : Julia Fuller in Parenting Children with Special Needs Blog at 06:01 am , 451 words, 158 views
Categories: Medications

I don’t know about you, but trips to the psychiatrist always boost my spirits. Ever the optimist, I am always hopeful that this time we will find the right combination of medications to make life easier. Today was Lyn’s appointment and I think I may have seemed a little desperate when I spoke with her psychiatrist. Her words and actions lately haven’t had too much to do with reality.

She has been seeing the same psychiatrist for medications for the past three years. He was also the psychiatrist who saw my now adult daughter for six years, so we have a long history. He is always very reserved and professional, but today, he actually slipped in a joke, so he must have thought I needed to lighten up.

I told him that we had to reduce Lyn’s Adderall because she was picking and scratching holes in her flesh again. That happened when she was on a high dose of Concerta too. Unfortunately, she just can’t concentrate without it, which probably has something to do with the fetal alcohol syndrome. He decided to leave her on the reduced dosage of Adderall, 30mg, and add 40mg of Strattera at bedtime. Hopefully, that will increase her attention span without causing the digging.

SPONSOR

Back in February, after she gave the horses haircuts, he put her back on 5mg of Zyprexa. We had tried to take her off most of her medications to ascertain if she really needed them. Anyway, today after learning about her imaginary meals and outings, he doubled it. He had her stand on the scales to verify her weight before writing the prescriptions. I commented that she might become a high fashion model; she certainly has the height and the figure. That’s when he smiled and suggested that modeling might be an excellent career choice.

I do not hope in vain. It took about three years of trying different combinations of medications with our now adult daughter, before we finally found the magic combination. She was the one that struggled with encopresis, killed animals, and hurt other children, and destroyed property. From the time she was 15 until she stopped taking her medications at 18, she was a wonderful, helpful daughter.

For information/instructions on how to subscribe FREE to your favorite AdoptionBlogs, please visit this link. your favorite AdoptionBlogs

AdoptionWeek e-Magazine To subscribe visit AdoptionWeek.com

Did You Ever Think, “My Child’s Special Needs Are Too Much to Handle?”
How to Choose a Psychiatrist
It’s True! Adopting Special Needs Children Can Make You Nuts
When Should an Adoptive Parent Cut the Purse Strings?
Another Trip to the Psychiatrist
We Have to Change Psychiatrist
Photo credit

2 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: lmg1567 [Member]

From 15 to 18....hmmm....so what was she like after she stopped taking the meds at 18? My 13 yo FASD son is not taking any meds right now - he was on a great combo for a few years and then they just stopped working and now after 4 years of searching, we need a break and I'm sure his tiny body needs a break as well. The FASD really is the "wild card" when it comes to meds. It isn't just straight ADHD or straight Bi-polar or whatever other diagnosis they have. You're basically just dealing with symptoms and using whatever the psychiatrist deems appropriate at that moment to eliminate this or that. Very frustrating....

Did you see the "60 minutes" segment on Sun. night about the 4 yo girl who died of meds. overdose? She was diagnosed bi-polar at the age of 2 (yes 2!!) and put on meds by 3. Her older brother and sister (like 5 and 7 yrs. I think) were also diagnosed bi-polar. Her mom gave her extra meds often when she didn't think the meds were working. She was on several things (depakote, clonidine and seroquil - plus cold medicine because she was sick) in doses as large as my much bigger, older kids have been on. The mother is charged with manslaughter for overmedicating her. She seemed pretty low-functioning when they interviewed her - how scary, most of our kids would be living with parents just like that if they were still in their bio-homes.

Good luck finding something that works!!

Permalink 10/02/07 @ 07:15

Comment from: seeworthy [Member]

We just started a medication change for DS(11), from Seroquel to Geodon. It was frightening because there were severe withdrawal symptoms we hadn't been warned about. So instead of continuing without the Seroquel cold turkey as instructed, we added a small dose back in at bedtime so DS could sleep again, which the psychiatrist approved continuing when we got in touch about it. Things seem to be going well now, 1-1/2 weeks into it. I'm just curious if anyone has any experience with Geodon. I hadn't heard of it before now, but we're noticing some surprising positive things, improvements in cognition I didn't know were possible. Some increased hyper-ness, too, though. DS isn't officially diagnosed with bipolar, although I suspect it. He was diagnised with FAS as a younger child, also currently with MMR, by the school. He's also on Adderall, which improves his concentration greatly. But there are certainly times I wonder about what he would be like without any meds. Just not sure if it's worth the risk of taking him off everything, if it might throw his world into chaos. He already struggles greatly with academics at school, so it's an ongoing dilemma, and I'm always looking for more info to make sure I'm doing the right thing.

Permalink 01/02/08 @ 15:56

Leave a Comment: You need to login to leave comments.:

Login | Register