Joshua Is Home

Well for better or worse Joshua is home.  The doctor wanted to keep him in longer as he was still required one on one with staff.  Which tells me he still was not stable enough to come home.  Glad to have him home but still scared to death of what we may be in for.

He was home and in the living room less than 10 minutes before we had to cover the television with a blanket and less than 5 minutes later he wanted to lay down in his bed.  20 minutes later he wanted to come out and eat.  As soon as he finished supper talked to his brother on the phone for a little while then wanted to go right back to bed.

Doesn't look like too much has changed.

Status Quo

Sorry for no updates.  Things are kind of in status quo right now.  Our visit yesterday was without aggression.  Joshua had a lot of new bruises from his day before when he was so aggressive.  I just hate that they can not seem to find the right mix of meds to even out his mood swings.  Really want him home but know he can't come home until the aggression has been addressed.

These Last Two Weeks

The last two weeks have felt like they have gone on forever.  It feels like more than two weeks.  Joshua not being home has given us a break from the rage and the restraints but the emotional side of this has not let up one bit.

We went to visit yesterday and will go again today.  Joshua had a rough day yesterday with three PRN doses for anxiety.  Seems like we are just holding status quo until Dr Ruiz gets back in town for changes.  I know if he sees him like he is now he will make some changes.  They called last night and was going to add another medication and we told them not to.  The one they were going to add Joshua had a reaction to that caused him to see things.  This is such a nasty disorder with no easy answers.

7/3/12 Phone Calls

We got two phone calls from the little fella yesterday.  We saw in the support groups where alot of the kiddos were having some real rough times yesterday.  It was no surprise to hear him kind of out out sorts as well.  He just sounded a little off.   Its amazing how you can talk to your child on the phone and know if he is having a good day or not just by the sound of his voice.

Wife Time

Paula and I are enjoying some us time here in the middle of all that is going on with Joshua.  We have never had much opportunity to exercise together.  And have not had much time to do it on our own lately either.  This morning she wanted to go get a good walk in.  Since the temps go up rather quickly these days we decided we would go for a walk indoors at the mall.  I had to keep reminding her we were there to walk as she kept stopping and looking in windows,  on the first pass anyhow.  We walked for about an hour and walked about 2 miles.  Enough to get the old ticker beating pretty good and little drops of sweat along the hairline.  It was good to get back to doing that a little.

Family Meeting 7-1-12

Today was our sit down with the therapist.  This was basically where they bring you in and ask you if you have any questions about the facility or the treatment plan.  Since we had already gotten 99% of the questions handled we spent a good deal of time with Joshua.  Now today was not as good as yesterday.  He was very tired and we believe he is crashing from the excessive time he was manic.  He needs a few days to catch up with himself physically.  If it takes a toll on us you know it has to wear him out as well.  So we are ok that he wanted to sleep more than he wanted to visit.

Come visitation time we called to check on his status and he was laying down so we came on home.

But he made at least 3 phone calls tonight to family.  He spoke with us and grandma and grandpa twice and called his Nana also.  Most of the phone calls were short and he was hard to understand because he was distracted by talking to the nurses at the nurse station but he is back to using the phone on a regular basis like he was before he went Manic.

Different Child 6-30-12 Visitation

Sorry I am so slacking on the updates been alot of stuff going on.

We went up on Saturday for visitation and bumped into Joshua's doctor on his way out of the hospital.  He was actually headed to the airport for a flight to Jamaica for a week.  He took the time to stop and talk with us for about 10 minutes regarding the treatment plans and what he was doing to cover Joshua while he was out of the country.  We have always thought alot about this doctor and consider him to be a blessing.  His heart is with these kids.

Joshua was a different child.  He had alot of his personality back and I could see a sparkle in his eye that we had not been seeing in some time.  We had a wonderful visit for the hour we were there.  I really hate such a short visitation time but I would rather have a short visit and him have positive progress than regression.

He did not give us a hard time and actually told us when he was ready for us to go.  He went back to his room and they did not have any problems with him.