WEEK 6: GETTING BETTER AND GOING FROM FULL DAY TO HALF DAY PROGRAM

Monday: Trip to College Station has its ups and downs. When the medicine wears off, the symptoms come back in very strange ways. Long day trips have not bee good for stability. 

Tuesday: Our son cannot go to the bathroom! Alarming information. We call doctor and find out it is one of the side effects. Almost ready to go to emergency room. Son finally goes to restroom. We lower the dosage of one of his medications. 

Wednesday: Heat wave makes us all miserable.

Thursday: Goes to half day program. Still taking bus. 

Friday: Our son says he hates weekends. Most people love weekends. I've also seen a pattern where our son wants to complain all weekend about how bad his life is. We try to be encouraging, but it is wearing us out.

Saturday: BIG NEWS. Our son gets his car back. He makes a couple of short drives around the area with great success. This really boosts his confidence and level of freedom.

Sunday: Our son drives to church then along the feeder to a place he likes to visit. He is not taking the freeway yet. Returns home with great success.

End of week.

***

Today's 5 minute break features one of my favorite all time music videos.

The whole thing seems like a party and celebration.

I can go with that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47dtFZ8CFo8

from our garden

WEEK 5: OUT OF THE PSYCH WARD AND ON TO RECOVERY

Sunday (last one in August)

Got call from psychiatrist asking if our son was showing improvement during the week in the psychiatric ward. He thought so and so did we. The meds are now covering the paranoia and troubling thoughts.

Monday:

Got call from the staff that our son was being discharged. This is both an exciting moment and then a troubling one. Will he be better at home? Or will it be another roller coaster ride?

The first night was good and he took his medicine without any fights.

Tuesday:

Our son takes one day off from the outpatient program. Everything is good until the afternoon. Our younger son sees him drinking a Full Throttle at the park! This high dose of caffeine coupled with his meds is what got him into trouble in the first place! What a mess.

We all sat down and had another family meeting. He said he would stop.

Wednesday:

Back into the PHP program all day long. This is a good thing.

Thursday:

We visit the psychiatrist and have a family meeting. He agrees that our son needs to stay on the higher dosage and needs to avoid any energy drinks with additives.

Friday:

Good day

Saturday:

Had friends over. Good day.

Sunday:

Went to church and had one friend over. Good day. We are getting hopeful that this might be it.

Ate out with friends at church. First time to socialize in public. All went well.

Monday:

One hallucination about food. Other than that, good day.

Went out of town to visit brother. Strange day for our son. For some reason long trips away from home stir up delusions. Today it was a false belief in things simply appearing. He also thought I could perform magical thinking by making things come true. Very strange.

Had problem when we changed the restaurant we were going to.

Good night.

***
Praise the Lord by Matt Redman (Great song!)
Enjoy your 5 minute break.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtwIT8JjddM