Treatment and Choices

Hunter began an intensive day treatment program at Children's Hospital yesterday.  We were recommended to this program after we ended up in the ER a couple months ago.  I am very excited about the opportunities this will open up and that he may finally get the help he has needed for so long.

The first day was probably more overwhelming for me than for him.  I expected to drop him off at 10am and then thought I would have about an hour filling out papers.  It ended up that I had just enough time to go grab some lunch and return back for more meetings.  Hunter has an awesome support staff including; a psychiatrist, a speech therapist, occupational therapist, art therapist, music therapist, three doctors and some other staff.  The staff is exceptionally friendly and very supportive not only for Hunter but for me as well.  I have had 4 meetings and more to come.  I love that not only are family able to visit and meet with the staff but they are required to do so.  They also have groups for the parents in the morning each day after drop off and additional classes taught by the doctors.

We are talking about medication after he had a huge meltdown today which included him biting himself, striping all his clothes off, hitting, kicking and throwing furniture.  I do think it is really necessary for him to be on meds at this point.  It's such a hard decision to make as we have tried many meds in the past and have found that if there is an extremely rare side effect our kids will tend to have it.  The first med is one that is mostly for anxiety and impulse control.  It can cause low blood pressure but otherwise has minimal side effects.  The other choice is a mood stabilizer and has many scary potential side effects.  I am concerned that the first choice would not be enough as it is similar to another drug we have tried in the past and had little to no effect.  I will be praying tonight that I make the right decision to help Hunter.  I am happy that before the doctor starts any meds they are having a full blood screening done to get a base line.  This way if there are any changes we will know.  This gives me confidence in the doctors and that they are looking out for Hunter.

It has been such a long journey and I am frustrated with myself that I allowed things to fall apart for awhile.  I quickly realized after yesterday that we have been trying too hard to get the kids to fit into the "normal" mode.  I don't know why this happened but we became less focused on many of the techniques we had found to work when they were little.  I never thought about a child as bright as Hunter still needing a picture schedule to help him regulate his day.  The doctors told me today that this is very normal as the kids get older we seem to think they are able to handle things and start treating them more like a typical child.  For awhile this works but then begins to backfire in a big way.  We apparently hit that point.

I am very thankful that God has provided us the opportunity for me to stop working at this time.  I should be finished up by the end of June.  I am looking forward to refocusing our lives and really helping the kids to find tools to use to be able to function better in day to day life.  God is truly giving me the strength I need and is helping me to find the hope I have been missing for so long.