On a good day, parenting will test the integrity of your character. On a bad day, parenting will test your will to live. Parenting children with trauma histories will cause you to test the integrity of everything and everyone you thought you knew, for the rest of your life.
~J. Skrobisz

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Score!

Chatting it up with one of the RAD moms going to Orlando (she's not a blogger so I can't linky her) and she was telling me about locking up her knives.

Up until know, our knives have been tucked away in the back of the drawer, hard to get at, etc. Scissors are up high. After the last three weeks of escalation with Sissy, I'm beginning to rethink that placement (no guns or archery gear in our house, FYI)

She says she has a plastic tool bin that has a loop for a three-number combination.

SCORE!

That is brilliant. It will be purchased ASAP. That is just plain gold. And I highly recommend.

In other news, Sissy is on the psych ward on watch and crisis stabilization for her suicide threat and self-mutilation. Although she admits she did it for attention, her pdoc said, "Go immediately"

I called the pdoc because her therapists were concerned about the toenail she tore off. Said Sissy to the intake guy, "it's a bad habit I have" YA THINK!? No antibiotic necessary. The other two toenails she yanked are healing (but the new nails are growing in oddly and will need to be watched for ingrown issues) and the most recent is still inflammed and oozing but less sore.

She discharges Friday morning. Emergency pdoc appointment is Monday morning. The therapy team is recommending we ask for a clinic stay so we can strip down her meds and start again - they're thinking her current med cocktail is jacking her up. The psychiatrist on the psych ward thinks it's all RAD issues but are upping her meds and sending her home with some PRN meds (heavy-duty anti-anxiety pills) to bring her down when she starts raging so we can all have a moderately quiet if not possibly pleasant holiday.

later. After 8 hours in the ER, last night's quilting evening plans were thwarted. I have much work to do.

[edit] fosterabba posed a good quesiton: why isn't the hospital keeping Sissy longer? because she isn't showing behaviors while there (duh - it's called RADs) so they don't have a reason to medically treat her beyond a med adjustment and because it's just a crisis stabilization unit no intended for longer stays

but we have a plan. no worries

4 comments:

r. said...

I shiver and get the heebie jeebies just thinking about toenails being torn off. Isn't that something Saddam's regime used to do to dissidents as torture?

FosterAbba said...

Why, why, WHY are they not keeping her over the holiday? It seems to me that if she's this unstable, maybe she shouldn't come home for a while.

Of course the doctors probably think they are doing you a favor by letting her out in time for Christmas.

Sending you e-hugs and good wishes...

GB's Mom said...

Peace, at least until Friday :)

Kerry said...

In response to the response on FosterAbba's comment: My friend's child is severely suicidal. She has been at the ER several times, and the way it has been described to me is that if she isn't actively suicidal right then and there, meaning that if she can walk out the door, it isn't an emergency and they don't do anything that's really helpful. Mental health services are pitiful. :( Sorry for your struggle.