Saturday, May 30, 2009

The Reason

This morning I took Daughter in for another blood draw for lithium and depakote levels. She can be a hard draw, and this morning she was especially challenging. I knew from the length of time she was in the lab that it wasn't going smoothly today. When she came out, she had huge bandages on her arm and hand. It had taken four attempts before they were able to get blood from her. I didn't have much sympathy. "If you hadn't stopped taking your medication, you wouldn't have needed to have blood drawn today."
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We went to IHOP for breakfast, and she voluntarily told me why she had stopped taking her medication. "I was stressed about Grandma and Grandpa, so I stopped taking it."
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"Hmm. How did that work for you?"
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"It made the stress worse and now I am dizzy and don't feel good because I had to start it all back up at once."
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Will she remember and learn from this? Maybe. Therapist regularly helps her think of good ways to deal with stress, but she still does things like OD on insulin.
I haven't told her that Grandpa is in the hospital again. He was moved out of ICU this morning, so it looks like he'll survive this one.

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