Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A Visit to the Shrink

Yesterday was our visit to the psychiatrist in Manhattan. GB likes these days because we spend them together, she misses school, and we have Mickey D's after our appointment. Hope got very excited, because GB did. We spent an hour and a half with the shrink. He was impressed with how resilient Hope is. Since we have had her less than a month, he recommended we not  change medication (she is on risperidone) and not do any evals until January.

We spent a lot of time talking about GB's instability. He increased both the lithium and the Namenda and said that would help, but she will still experience psychotic breaks. Since she had to be taken off the risperidone because of serious side effects, he won't but her on any atypical anti-pyschotics for at least a couple of years. We need to avoid stressful (for GB) situations until we get her stable again. So for right now, soccer, dance and gymnastics are gone. She seemed to understand that they were too hard for her right now and gymnastics is the only one she expressed disappointment with missing.

Hope held up well through the appointment, but lost it on the way home. She finally tantrumed herself to sleep and the last hour of the car ride was peaceful. The nap reset her and the girls did well the rest of the day.  We kept things quiet and they played in their kitchen. watched a little of a Care Bear movie while snuggling, ate dinner, took a bath, and read a book. They were both asleep before 8 pm.

We are still waiting for a call back from the therapist.

3 comments:

Integrity Singer said...

wow, sounds like an extremely productive day!

marythemom said...

What a roller coaster, but it sounds like it ended on a positive note. I will be hoping and praying that GB (and Hope) gets stable soon.

Hugs and prayers,
Mary in TX

Mom of 7 said...

You may already do this, but I wonder if you could incorporate some gymnastic type activities for both girls, like crab walks, somersaults, wheelbarrow...our OT said they were great core strengthening activities, which also help regulate, and do those at home, along with jumping, and bouncing on exercise balls. I imagine gymnastics is a great thing for her, I have considered it for my FAS boy, but since it it too much, you could have "gymnastics" time at home, and both girls would probably do great with it. You may have already thought of that, just a thought.