A Day in the Life of a Bipolar Child

We have recently acquired a PCA for Sarah. What is that you say? Well....she is a person who helps Sarah with life skills, PT exercises, and other daily needs. However, her main job at the moment is keeping up with Sarah's energy level. To give you an example.....

On Monday, during a 5 hour period Sarah did all these activities, all lasting about 5 minutes:

Go outside, come inside, play with playdough, go back outside, come in finish playdough, giggle for no reason, stop to do PT, eat dinner, go shopping, come home, go swimming, come home, giggle some more, go outside, tell Mom "I'm bored", start a game, end the game, go do the Wii, go sledding in backyard, come in, giggle, giggle, decide to go to the school and play outside there, come home, discuss what we have done and that we have a lot of energy, giggle more, swing, play catch while on a balance ball, play guitar, have dessert, watch fish and frog, (see previous post), go back outside, come in, claim being tired, PCA goes home, get ready for bed, have a snack, ask about tomorrow, tell parents we can't possible sleep......and crash out 5 minutes later.

Wow, that makes me tired!

On a more incredible note....I have been asked recently if I have gotten a job. I am never home and it has nothing to do with a paying gig. I have recently been give the title of "Home Medical Manager" by the clients living in our home! I am, on average at 4-6 appointments a week. This includes, but is not limited to.....Paperwork for Sarah and Josh to get MA and special services for Sarah which include: (she is bipolar...that will be another blog,) weekly PT for Sarah who has the balance and coordination of a 4 year old and the strength of a 7 year old, PT rehab (the specialist who over sees Sarah's physical condition,) a weekly psychology apt, a monthly psychiatrist apt, ongoing genetics apts to find out what the heck is going on, a neurosurgeon due to finding a syrinx on her spinal MRI, day treatment school, and numerous apts at the orthopedics due to the 20 ankle sprains, two growth plate breaks, 2 dislocated radial heads, an injured thoracic nerve, sprained hand and hmmm...I know I am missing some.

On top of that, Josh sprained his MCL during a stunt gone bad involving his cousins, an ATV and a sled! He cut his hand and needed stitches ( gaining "street cred" with his boys scout homeys because he went back to the camp after finishing at the doctors!) Josh's scout leader was heard to say, "I knew I shouldn't have given a knife to a Rogers kid!" Megan's apts for her broken heel (jumping off a bed!) and broken finger (slammed in a desk). Erin braces and a little camping accident that involved a knife and 6 stitches while camping in Winona. Not including concerts, PCA apts, Home health checkups, Case Manager meetings, our church callings.....you get the idea!

I realize that this may not sound like a lot until you know that this has all happened within the last year....most of it within the last 6 months! A friend recently asked me which Gods we angered, to which I replied, "All the Gods of all the worldly religions!" We had the missionaries from our church over one evening and one of the missionaries was in a cast. We got to talking about injuries (Josh was fresh from his MCL sprain, Megan had a cast for her heel, and a brace for her wrist.) We then went on with our chat. Then, the next day, a friend was dropping her son off for a New Year's Eve party and told me that they had the missionaries over for dinner the night after the missionaries were here. They asked the missionary with the broken arm how he injured it to which he wittily replied, "Oh...I was at the Rogers...."

As I drove home from a pet store visit with a new beta for my dariling daughter Sarah, I reflected back to the begining of this aquatic adventure. Last November Sarah and I were in a petstore and she found a beta fish that she "just has to get," "there won't be another like it ever!." I said that I thought we had enough pets,(a dog, fish, 2 guinea pigs, and 2-14 gerbils depending on how large the litter is....ithat's a whole 'nother story!) and she could get one in the future when our other animals had gone to their next estate. Now, jump ahead to December....we are getting gifts for our kids and I find a fun "toy" for Sarah. You buy an aquatic set up that includes two tadpoles that you then raise and take care of. After doing some research, we found that these frogs can live up to 35 years! We decide that that isn't for us and pursue other ideas.

This is when, while in the pet store I see that they have aquatic frogs that are more like betas....breathe air, minimal tank cleaning and live a short time. We buy the set up and two frogs (we gave her this gift a little early due to extenuating circumstances.) After about two days frog number one dies...we have a 14 day gaurantee on the little buggers so we go trade dead for alive and are once again up and running. Well, another frog dies, then the replacement frog dies and they allow us to trade in yet again and try our luck once more. At this time, we also add 4 guppies and a little algae eater. Well......yep, you got it both frogs bite it and our little algae eater and 2 guppies!

By now we are all fed up with this process and find a different pet store that might be able to provide some insight as to why we keep killing the little buggers. So, after some advice and looking at the fish, we decide to replace the frogs with new ones, but give them their own tank and different food. (It turns out that the guppies were attacking and stressing out the frogs and that, along with starving them to death is why they died.) We also buy 2 replacement guppies and a new algae eater.

Everything is going smoothly when out of nowhere one of the frogs dies!!! Now, Sarah is in a full tizzy and refuses to try more frogs, (do you blame her?!) And when the previous frogs died she said she would try only once more then she was going to just get a beta as a replacement. I agree to this, but forgot that she is amazing at getting around the little details. I had never specified that both frogs would have to die to get the fish...so off we go to the pet store AGAIN!!! She picks out a beautiful beta and a set up for it (yes, we are now onto 3 tanks!!) and head home.

At this time I realize that had I just bought her the beta in November I would have saved myself countless trips to the store, emotional trauma to my child and oh so very much money. I think that she might have had this all planned out to begin with!

Welcome to the Madness....

When you start a life together, you never know what the future may hold. As the ailments piled up over the years, we never dreamed we would be on a first name basis with several doctors, many nurses, a few psychologists and the cast guy at the orthopaedic center, whose name is Don. (A shout out to Don!)