This was NOT Okay! (Chapter 8)

Thirty-six hours went by before Sunshine slept after returning home from the children's inpatient psychiatric ward.

She chattered in her bed all night long.

Neither my husband or I slept.  Thank goodness he had been able to switch days off to be here with me for the day.

The minute the clock struck 8 AM, I was on the phone calling the psych ward she had just been discharged from as well as our developmental pediatrician.  I also called our in-home therapist.

I wasn't sure who would talk to me.  I just knew I had to talk to someone.

This was NOT okay.

I was fuming.

Medication

The psychiatrist called back first.  Very calmly she explained that Sunshine not sleeping was most likely one of the medications she was given.  One of the side effects is not being able to sleep.

This was exactly why I didn't want her discharged in the first place!

Thankfully the psychiatrist wanted to help.  She recommended changing up the dosage of another med to balance out the reaction.

Then she gave me her e-mail and said she would work with us until our follow up appointment with our developmental pediatrician.

So began daily e-mails back and forth until finding stability with Sunshine's meds.

Aggression and Defiance

But medication wasn't the solution to all that was going on.  Sunshine's aggression and defiance were still out of control.

The first few days she was calm, but once she caught up on sleep...  BEWARE!

It was as if nothing had changed.  In some ways she was worse.

A feeling of despair was felt by everyone.

This was NOT okay!

What were we to do?

Purposeful Behavior

Our in-home therapist was amazing during this time.  When things were at their worst and Sunshine was threatening to harm others beyond the typical aggression, she was right there.

That's when we learned that these new behaviors were purposeful.

Medication can help some things, but not all.

Even worse Sunshine was very aware of her thoughts, words, and actions.  She understood the consequences and did not care.

The trip in the police car, the ER visits, the nine days in an inpatient facility hadn't done a thing.

This was NOT okay!

We were devastated.

Decisions

Decisions had to be made.  Sunshine was a danger to herself and others.

We could take her back to the ER and move forward with the inpatient experience again.  She would either be sent home after a few days or sent to a residential facility.

We could attempt to access funding quickly and place her in residential if a bed was available.

Or, we could consider a day program that would allow her to stay at home, but be gone during the day.

My husband and I couldn't fathom going through the ER and inpatient experience again so soon.  Emotionally, mentally, and physically we could not pull that off.

I was at peace with residential placement, as devastating as that would be, but we had no idea how long that process would take.

In the end we decided it was extremely important to exhaust ALL of our options before considering residential placement.

We contacted the principal of a day program/special needs school in the area via e-mail and hoped for the best.

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