Bipolar Archives - Page 178 of 340

Managing Gavin’s meds can be a huge PITA

One of the more frustrating parts of being a special needs parent is dealing with medications. One of the most frustring parts of dealing with medications is getting them filled on time. Gavin is on an antipsychotic known as Clozapine. Clozapine is the most tightly controled medication in the US. Clozapine requires bloodwork before each refill and because of Gavin's recent bouts with Neutrophilia, he can only have seven days worth of pills at a time. He can't miss more than one dose or he will have to be pulled off the meds. These refills are extremely time sensitive That means four times a month he needs bloodwork and I need to worry about his refills. There's a very specific process that must take place in order to get the…

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May 14, 2018

Autism Parenting Struggles / Gavin / My thoughts / YouTube Video

Micromanaging #Autism: Dealing with feeding problems

I wanted to take a minute and drop this video here, as well as pick your brain. Feeding problems can be quite common in kids with Autism, for a number of reasons. Unfortunately, it's not something that is always outgrown, as evidenced by the fact that after 18 years, it's still a problem. I'd love to hear your experience and find out how you've addressed feeding problems in your family. https://youtu.be/nJUhA5_aPJM

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May 14, 2018

My thoughts

We want to make some changes

We want to get into some new routines prior to summer break because it will be easier to transition the kids if it's something we've been doing for a couple of weeks already. The boys only have ten days of school left and I'm beginning to stress out a little bit because our grocery budget has taken a hit. I'm working to overcome some of these obstacles but the reality is, it's much easier said than done. For now we will have to work within our means, while we strive to do better. One of the things we wanted to start doing is returning to the farmers market. We used to do this all the time when the kids were younger but it's been years since we've been there. The…

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May 14, 2018

Family Time / Lizze / My thoughts

This was very last minute

Elliott is sick. Emmett and Gavin are in Y-Town visiting my grandmother. Them going in the trip was sorta last minute but we figured it would do them some good to get out of the house and we could use the break. ☺ I sent Lizze to take a nice long, guilt free nap, and I hung out with Elliott. We ordered her favorite pizza for dinner and will be endulging on that as soon as it arrives. Things are tight right now but we got Lizze a Google Play gift card and a stuffed penguin for Mother's Day. She's never really been a huge flowers person, so this stuff was perfect. The kids won't be home for a few hours and the three of us will just hang out…

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May 13, 2018

Autism Parenting Struggles / Gavin / My thoughts

This is why we have to watch Gavin so closely around food

Gavin's not feeling so well. It began last night with him overeating at the cookout. Gavin has never been one with a functional ability to self-regulate. As an example, he doesn't ever really feel full when he eats. What happens is he will eat too much and end up making himself sick. He's been doing better over the last few years because we've been trying to create habits for him to help compensate for what his brain doesn't do correctly on its own. Unfortunately, we still have times where Gavin will eat and eat and eat, until he makes himself sick. Last night was a perfect example. When we're at home, it's much easier to monitor what he eats but when we're somewhere else, it's much more challenging. We dropped…

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May 13, 2018

Family Time / My thoughts / Photography

We had such a good time tonight

We had a really fun time with the whole family last night. We spent the evening celebrating Mother's Day with my parents and siblings. We haven't all been in the same place at the same time in a really long time. It was awesome. The boys did really well but sadly, Elliott wasn't feeling well at all. He was okay when we first got there but shortly after arriving, he began to not feel well. It's the same sore throat, headache and nasal drip thing he's been dealing with. It's been on and off for the last few days. If he's not feeling better by Monday, we'll get him into to see his doctor. I'm pretty sure this will have to runs its course but nothing wrong with erring on…

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May 13, 2018

Clozapine / Gavin / My thoughts / Schizophrenia

This isn’t good

I spoke previously about Gavin changing the way he takes his medication. I also shared how we suspect that the voices in his head are the ones telling him to do this because it wasn't us (see As if life wasn’t already hard enough, it seems the voices are back). We're seeing further evidence that the voices have returned. So far this afternoon, Gavin has come down from his room on the second floor because he swears we called him to come down. We haven't called him down and that leaves one of two possibilities. Either he just thinks he's hearing us and wants to double check or he's actually hearing us call him in his head, even though we aren't. Gavin is Schizophrenic and has been experiencing both audio…

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May 12, 2018

Clozapine / Gavin / My thoughts / Schizophrenia

As if life wasn’t already hard enough, it seems the voices are back

Last night, Gavin came downstairs after being in bed for a couple of hours, mumbling something about a glass of water and claiming to be wheezing. He was heavily sedated and that's not necessarily normal for him. With no changes having been made to his meds, there shouldn't be any change to the way they impact him. This morning, I mentioned to Lizze that something wasn't right last night and I wonder if he's taking his medication, specifically his Clozapine, correctly. We were prepared to write if off as a one off event and move on. Right about that time, Gavin came downstairs and I asked him about last night. As I suspected, he didn't really remember what happened. I then took the opportunity to ask him about whether or…

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May 12, 2018