5 weeks

So, it has been 5 weeks since my last post. I am seriously tempted to make this a private blog/journal (with nobody invited at all but myself) so that I can actually write what goes on without worrying about what people think.

June 10th we went to see Dr. Max - we love him. He is worth every penny of the $340/hour we pay him even though that amount of $ is tough to say good bye to.  He diagnosed Calvin with Personality Change due to brain damage. I will probably write more about that some other time just in case it could benefit somebody else to learn about this diagnosis.

We started Calvin on 5mg prozac and increased the dose to 10mg. It seemed to help with his general mood but not really the huge tantrums which are debilitating to Calvin, our home, our family and life in general.

There was one week in June was horrible. Calvin learned the new trick of taking the bus to school but then not getting off the bus once he got there. He was brought home one day. The next day I drove down to school to get him off the bus so that he could stay at school. That same day he was not "safe enough" to get on the bus so I had to go pick him up as well. (this means I was in the car 8:30-10 and then again from 1-2:30). It ate my day. That was day one and two of the week. The entire week was a mess.  It was rough. 

Since Prozac wasn't improving quality of life for anyone, dr said "most humane thing" would be to move to the "big guns".  We started Risperidone a couple of weeks ago. A baby dose of .25mg. It did seem to work magic for the first couple of days and though it still has some effect in reducing tantrum frequency and length, they are still there. Dr. says this "plateau" is typical and bumped the dose up to .5mg (started this tonight so we'll see how it goes).

Now Calvin takes 6 pills at night (trileptal, tenex, risperidone) and 4 (tenex and Prozac) in the morning.  For the first week of this I was pretty upset by it, but it is just life. I should not be a dramatic and even be temped to have a pity party. So many have way worse troubles. Chronically sick kids on dozens of medicines without hope of a good outcome.

Today was the 1st day of summer for Calvin. He has had school the last 6 weeks that the girls have been home. It's been a good 6 weeks.  Now we have 3 weeks with everyone home and then the girls go back to school about 2 weeks before Calvin, giving him a little of his own summer time too.

All is well.