Thursday, September 4, 2008

Mission: Impossible


I told Therapist today I was considering recording a tape with the theme song from Mission: Impossible and recording instructions on it for her with regard to Daughter. She laughed. I was able to schedule an appointment for Daughter for 1:00 today. I told therapist I knew something was wrong, but hadn’t been able to determine what it was. Daughter wanted me to stay in for her conversation with Therapist, and I learned a great deal and I understand why Daughter has been struggling so much later.

As I had figured out, Daughter is upset with Best Friend. She’s being pulled into all of Best Friend's problems, and is hearing about them not only from Best Friend, but from Best Friend’s boyfriend. She has really been shaken by the problems Best Friend has been having living independently, and it has shaken her confidence in her ability to someday live on her own.

She is finally beginning to suspect what I have suspected for sometime: they are stonewalling her at the sheltered workshop and blocking her attempts to try one of the jobs off-site. I suspect that they are afraid of problems with the diabetes if she goes to one of the off-site jobs. I can’t prove any of it, and had decided to remain silent as long as it wasn’t a problem for Daughter. She has been asking for an appointment with Case Manager for over a week and Supervisor keeps “forgetting” or being “too busy” to schedule it.

Finally, Best Friend told her this week that one of the new clients at the workshop is a registered sex offender. Daughter can’t remember his name, so we can’t look him up to see if that is true. This has triggered her PTSD. We pointed out that she has been safe, and has the skills to continue to keep herself safe. Daughter doesn’t want Therapist or me to intervene. She wants to continue to try to deal with it on her own.

Therapist showed her how to give Best Friend’s problems back to Best Friend. I kicked Daughter out, and Therapist and I strategized about how to deal with the workshop. For now, we’re going to respect Daughter’s wishes. Therapist had offered to go over to the workshop and meet with Daughter there for her next appointment. Daughter didn’t like that idea, but did agree to allow Therapist to pick her up. This will give me an extra hour to work before I have to go pick Daughter up from Therapist’s office. It is a wonderful gift to me. There will be a meeting about Daughter’s service plan, probably in October. Therapist wants to attend that meeting. We also gave Daughter some suggestions on how to get her meeting scheduled with Case Manager.

Daughter was much happier after the appointment. She agreed to take an extra trazadone tonight to see if that will help her sleep through the night. (She’s currently taking 200 mg, and Psychiatrist told us we can go up to 300 mg if necessary). She acknowledged that her night time wanderings have been taking her by the refrigerator, which is why her morning blood sugars have been so high.

I took Daughter over to visit her friend who is in rehab at the nursing home. I visited one of the saints while she was with her friend. When I went to get her, her friend asked me to pray with him, and I did. I hope that she will be able to sleep tonight. She deserves a better night’s sleep. We both do.

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