Crisis Averted

As promised, Aspie Boy's new AFO's and orthotic shoes

It's been a tough summer for AB. I've alluded to it once or twice but never been very specific. It began HERE, Here and Here. And then I mentioned it again in June when his doctor added mood disorder to his list of diagnoses.

Well, AB has gotten much worse. He really hasn't had a happy summer at all. It's been rather difficult to manage him and he is only escalating.  He's not been sleeping well either despite one of his medications that was supposed to help him sleep.  His doctor called in Ambien which the therapist, the pharmacist and I all said, "uh, no.  not for a 9 year old." So he went to bed with no sleeping aid.  Which meant yesterday, after 4 hours of screaming, the therapist was ready to say he needed a hospitalization to stabilize his meds. The Dad and I were against it, certain that environment would make AB worse because of his sensory issues.  But the doctor proceeded to call to see if he could be placed based upon the three-way conversation between me (with the therapist chiming in while I was on the phone), the nurse and the physician.

Crisis averted. AB didn't fit the criteria for placement because he's not hurting himself or others. He's been hell to live with, but he's not hurting anything. After a teary conversation with his doctor (who is out of town and was calling me from her cell phone), he's on resperidal.

Is he better? Too soon to tell but he wasn't screaming today. His therapist was back this morning and is going to do an emergency request to step up his case from CSI to IFI.  We are also hoping to get him an emergency appointment with the contracted psychiatrist [1] with the therapy team since AB's doctor is a developmental delay specialist and is not as well versed in the meds and their interactions. Thank goodness, yesterday and today we got respite.

I can't begin to tell you how frazzled my nerves are. Really, this is just insanity, I can't keep my head on straight. I knew this was going to be a hard summer but wow. This is too much.

Sorry for a bummer post but honestly, after these weeks of escalation with AB just as Sissy has been getting better, my ears are ringing and my head is swimmy and all I really want to do is cry. Instead I bring you, recycling:

We've been recycling faithfully for a year now. Our county has an excellent recycling center. This is four weeks of recycling in the van, today's load ready to go. I can't believe how much recycling has reduced our weekly trash. It has honestly saved us money because before we began to recycle, I was about to call the trash company to increase our number of weekly pick ups. Now, our bin is rarely full every week when we roll it to the curb.

There now, recycling is MUCH better than crying, don't you think?

[1] AB hasn't been referred to a psychiatrist because up until this past spring, he hasn't needed much in medication.  Now that mood disorder is on his chart, it is obvious he needs psychiatric care but the problem is, the private physician Sissy sees has a very long waiting list and AB's needs are immediate and dire.  As long as AB is a client of the therapy team, he can be treated by their psychiatrist.  What we do after he is discharged is anybody's guess.  Our community only has two pediatric psychiatrists in private practice.  time to dial through the phone book and be prepared to travel for monthly appointments?  Maybe.