difficult child back in hospital

[jodyice]

We went to the meeting at the hospital with the counselor today. Things went ok, not great. She seemed to show some care, but when I asked about the Residential Treatment Facility (RTF)/Residential Treatment Center (RTC) she said that she wouldn't feel comfortable in stating difficult child needing something more intensive like that, due to the fact that this is the first time he's been in this hospital. She did suggest more home supports, but where we live, I believe we're getting as many home supports as we can. She wants another meeting this Friday with us, and everyone involved with difficult child (family based team, MH/MR coordinator, and someone from his school). She's also going to try to push the insurance company into as many days as possible, but she still feels we won't get anything past Monday of next week. So we're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. I know at this time I don't feel safe to let him come home and I really can't see where I'm going to change my mind in the next few days. She said that when she met with difficult child that morning, he remembered what he did and told her that there was an evil person inside his head that told him to do it. She also brought difficult child in for part of the meeting, she asked him some questions (interpreter was there), he responded to some questions and some questions he didn't understand or so that's how his responses came out (needing clarification, signing he didn't understand, etc.) She asked me in front of him about what had happened, she didn't want me to hide my emotions, not that I could of, difficult child didn't really respond to that. Before she brought difficult child down, he had been sleeping and he continued to be tired during the whole time she was talking to him, we kept having to wake him up. She also brought up something that was very disturbing, difficult child mentioned that he had a sexual relationship with another student where he attends school, and she's going to dvelve deeper into that and get CPS/CYS involved. She said it could possibly be a reason he's *acting out*. This is a place we always felt he was safe at and to have that suspicion is really tearing me and his father up inside. Then again when she asked him 5 minutes later, he said "no" it didn't happen. So we don't know what to think. I'm really trying to believe this is none of my fault, but I'm supposed to protect him and if it did happen, I didn't do my *mom* job.
So far there's not been any medication adjustments, but he has only been in there for a day, maybe in the next few days when the doctor meets with him more they will do something. Counselor did say that he did get agitated with her earlier when she was speaking with him.
When I had checked his glucose levels prior to this incident, he was 236, which is high but there's not always a correlation between his glucose levels and his behaviors. Throughout the day his glucose levels are checked 4-6 times a day. His glucose chart is faxed to the hospital once a week and he sees the doctor every 3 months for a check up. If insulin needs changed she does it prior to the appointments when she gets the fax.
Also, I do go ahead and interpret as much as I can before the interpreter shows up, but I don't know signs for every word, I don't know medical stuff and there's still the fact that they're supposed to provide an interpreter. And then there's the fact that difficult child says he don't like my facial expressions when I sign, that I scare him and that I sign wrong at times. So it can make him hard to understand something when I sign and frustrating as well.
husband and I need to contact his psychiatrist tomorrow to cancel difficult child's appointment for this Thursday since he'll still be in the hospital and reschedule. And since she works with the deaf community we're going to ask her for different Residential Treatment Facility (RTF)'s that may be able to handle his special needs. I guess then we go from there and hope we can find something. I know last time we called his insurance company and asked them, they told us "if the psychiatric hospital recommends placement in an Residential Treatment Facility (RTF), then we will look to find out whom can take him." But they wouldn't share the list with us, which I'm not sure why.
Anyway that's it for now. I'll post more updates as I know what's going on.
I thank you all for your continual support. ~hugs to all~

 

[kris]

<font color="brown">joanne, i know the urge is strong to blame yourself, but none of this is your doing. if he was molested at school how could you have prevented that....it's a residential setting for heavens' sake. you weren't there! while we like to think they are protected in those environments there is a heck of a lot of experimentation that goes on in boarding schools...boy on boy as well as girl on girl. even the most classy boarding schools have this happen.

being an insulin dependant diabetic i don't see high sugars setting off this episode. low sugars can cause aggitation, but i've never heard of highs doing that.

why do you think he was so sleepy? sugars don't seem high enough to cause that. avoidance maybe since there were no medication changes as of yet?

you need to call his regular psychiatrist & aprise him of the situation....like right away. he can't do anything but he can maybe contact treating psychiatrist in hospital.

you can do your own research on Residential Treatment Center (RTC) placement & most certainly should. talk to the director of the residential school....& again, if you have contacts in the Deaf community talk to them. are you friendly with-any of the other parents from the school??? i don't understand why your insurance company would not give you a list....unless they have no clue who might be willing to take your son.

you don't need a hospital referral to have him placed in Residential Treatment Center (RTC). his own psychiatrist & a recommendation from the school should do the trick.

given the level of the violence i don't understand why the hospital SW is saying she's not comfortable making an Residential Treatment Center (RTC) recommendation. what does he have to do before she *feels comfortable* :shocked: :shocked: :shocked:.

it's starting to sound like we may have to dust off the warrior mom armor for you & send it overnight. this is sounding like you are going to have to make some serious noise....kick things up higher. FIGHT!!!!

kris :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: </font>

 

[jodyice]

kris, from what I understood, both highs and lows could cause an agitation in someone, but when difficult child can as well become agitated/violent when glucose levels are within range, the doctors can't blame it on that. Would be nice if that was the only time he exploded, be an easier *fix* perhaps.
I think he was sleepy because of 1.avoidance and 2. they increased the dosage of Geodon. Which I didn't know until we talked to the nurse yesterday.
We have a call into his psychiatrist, but if she responds this time like in the past it will be a few days.
About the Residential Treatment Center (RTC), everyone continues to talk about a place we've tried before. It's not really a Residential Treatment Center (RTC), but a school for the deaf that specifically deals with behavior problems in children. The children live in group homes and the program lasts a year, longer if need be. The problem we had before with trying to get him placement, is they aren't staffed with a nurse, but out school district said they would pay for a nurse, and the staff would have to get some training in understanding low and high blood sugars and be able to give an emergency shot if difficult child would start going into shock, and the staff at Children's Hospital would actually go to the school for the training, if need be. Now the school refused last time, but maybe this time we can do something more to make them see how imperative he be placed there.
What the counselor said when we were there on Tuesday was, "This is the first time he's been admitted to this hospital, we don't know him well enough to make that kind of recommendation." And the way I took it is more that the insurance company would ask what this is based on, and they would have only one record from this particular hospital. Which still don't make any sense to us, because they can get records from the previous hospitals that he's been in to see how close these hospital *visits* are now becoming and the escalation of the violence to get him there. Maybe they're waiting till he really hurts one of us or worse. ~sighing~
We have another meeting this Friday, what the counselor called a *community meeting*, to talk about a safety plan, etc. husband is going to get the warrior dad outfit on. He's better at getting a point across without bursting into tears than what I am. But they are going to have a fight on their hands. husband and I were talking yesterday about what sort of help our family based team has provided since they've been in place (October), and we really can't see anything that they've done to help difficult child. They've made 2 safety plans and neither one of them have worked so far, plus if you count the safety plans from the last team we had, that's 8 different safety plans that have worked very little or not at all. This last episode needs to be addressed more fully and they've not done that yet.
~stepping off the soap box~ Sorry for being so long winded. It's 2:30am and I have all this stuff jumbled in my head and needed to try and sort some of it out.