My Patience is Nonexistent!

I have about had it with the irritability! What's worse than a child who is terribly irritable and changes moods with the shift of the wind? Giving that said child his medicine and him not wanting to do it and it all ending up on the floor spit out.

As aggravated as I was, I did the wrong thing, then the right thing. At first I got mad at him and asked him why on earth this has to be so difficult. Of course that ended up in his stomping off and him telling me he's not going to talk to me until next year and me saying not so nice things under by breath after he was in his room.

A few minutes later I went to him and told him I was sorry for getting so angry with him and told him I wanted him to come out and try again. I was going to be calm and patient with him this time. He didn't come out like I had hoped, so I gave him five minutes and told him he could go ahead and get a pudding if he wanted to take it with pudding. Apparently that was what he wanted all along but didn't tell me that.

I can give props to the medicine now though. What would have (could have) turned into a long temper tantrum or rage was pretty minimal. A few sprinkles on the floor versus a major rage....I'll take the mop to mop up the sprinkles anyday!

About Last Night

It wasn’t pretty. It was quite ugly, in fact. He had a major violent rage last night.  It has been three months since the last major rage event occurred. Shame on me for thinking they might be a thing of the past.

He’s been more aggravated and irritable the past few days. I’ve chalked it up to his and his brother’s birthdays this week. They also had a birthday party at the water park. Add on the city swim meet and that’s about the perfect recipe for disaster when mixed with a bipolar kid.

Each rage episode scares me more than the last. I pray that that was the last, but know that it most likely wasn’t.

Sarah:)

Nine! Nine! Nine!

My first-born is nine today.

In years past, birthdays have been a day of breakdowns from too much excitement, too little sleep, too much anticipation, etc. But today, the ninth birthday, has been different. Granted, it's only 4:58PM and we could still see WW3 today, but I'm thinking it won't happen.

This Depakote stuff must really be working. He's able to handle frustration better. He was able to make a decision about what to spend his money on in a few minutes rather than a few hours. He did not pitch a fit when I told him no caffeine (like he did yesterday). He sits on the couch with his brother's arm draped over him and is not annoyed or shouting at him to leave him alone.

Today is a good day!

The Middle

Most stories start at the beginning. I am going to start this one in the middle.

My oldest son turns nine in a few days. He has a working diagnosis of bipolar disorder. The few people we’ve told have been shocked and wondered how we were dealing with such a shocking diagnosis. Well, I think they’ve forgotten that we live with him and such a diagnosis just doesn’t pop up; we’ve been dealing with it for eight years now. Only now do we have a name and some possible options to help him.

Currently he is taking Depakote and appears to be more stable.

That is the middle of my story. The end is unknown and the beginning will take a long time to tell.

Sarah:)