Snow Day Again: Good Things Happened Anyway

Today is the sixth consecutive day the girls have been home. Good things happened anyway. The Dad and I went to speak with the psychiatrist(word is too long. That's why I usually call them shrinks) who did the psychiatric evaluation on Hope. It is now official- Hope is RAD. She may also be ADHD. We will be weaning her off the Risperdal over the next three months starting with the morning dose. Good luck Mrs. VY Teacher. After she is off the Risperdal, we will have her evaluated for ADHD. Doesn't sound like something to celebrate. Ah, but there is more. Hope's VCS (Very Competent Shrink) has agreed to treat GB, so instead of a 5 1/2 hour round trip to Manhattan, it will be a 2 hour round trip to the little city. She also said that the next generation of Risperdal is now available in a child's dose. It doesn't have the weight gain or the prolactin problems Risperdal does. YIPEEEE! She is sending me more information. I can actually dream of a stable GB again. Granted, she will still contend with FASD and ASD, but that will always be true. No more psychosis! If my body was working better, I would be dancing. Good thing this is a blog post- you can't hear my tone deaf singing :)

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.