As a parent to very complicated special needs child maintaining medications seems to be one of the biggest challenges we face. Gavin is 10 years old and already going through puberty. This is rough enough for a typical kid. Gavin is much, much worse. All of his meds are no longer working. His bipolar symptoms are completely out of control. He goes between manic and more manic. Everyone is suffering through this right along with him. We are dealing with mood swings and extreme "think to breathe" syndrome. We have almost no idea what he's saying anymore. You just get this creepy vibe right now. We have been walking the medication tight rope for many years but I fear we are in for a rude awakening with the dawn of…

New article up at the examiner. Great read: http://tinyurl.com/3x3dszv

While this is really a direct response to my wife's post earlier (see below) it applies to most of us. Lizze, I want to say a few things in response to your "Bad Mother" post. I want you to know that in almost every conceivable way I agree with what you had to say with one big exception. You feel like a bad mother, well I feel like a terrible father. The reality is that you are a great mother despite how you may feel sometimes. You give up everything for our kids. No one on this planet knows more then I do how much pain you push through everyday for our kids. Gavin has no idea what he's saying most of the time. He works kinda like a slip'n…

My wife just posted this to her blog. I just read it and I am sure we can all relate in some way. It is a very honest post and a really good read. ----------------- I am not a good mother. I'm not. I hate to burst your bubble. I hate to tell you something you don't want to know. But it's true. I. Am. Not. A. Good. Mother. I try. God, how I try. But it's so hard. To say that Gavin can push my buttons without even trying...is an understatement. Then when he does try to push my buttons...it's enough to drive me insane. To say that I'm stressed out and over-whelmed...is a gross understatement. To say that they  all try to push my buttons...it drives me to…

As you are all aware of Gavin is autistic. Gavin is also bipolar and about 7 other comorbidities. Right now we are really struggling with him because his bipolar meds are no longer effective. It seems like a cruel twist of fate that these kids that struggle so much with autism as it is that they are also burdened with comorbidities like bipolar. In my experience with this I have found this to significantly complicate matters. You treat one and it causes the other to be more difficult to manage. Gavin, for example doesn't do well with adhd meds. So we can't help him much with that. His bipolar has become extremely tough to manage. He no longer responds to most bipolar meds. All we have left to try is…

Please check out Lizze's New Examiner.com article. Today's topic is Earth Day.   Read..Enjoy...Subscribe.. http://bit.ly/cdNUfc

We wanted Elliott Richard to have something all to himself. He has been asking for his own kitten for a while now. We had been looking for just the right one. Today we found her. Elliott Richard couldn't be happier. Still working on the name. LT

I have to say that I think Gavin does things just screw with us. Like he gets some kind of sick pleasure out of driving us crazy. I only say this because it's very obvious that he is choosing to do these things, like constantly repeat himself, attempting to pit Lizze and I against each other and ignoring Elliott Richard for so long that he starts to cry because Gavin has hurt his feelings. Gavin is all over the map right now. One minute he is happy the next he is throwing a fit and the lying is getting to be to much. One more day is all we have to make it through. LT