Doctors

Daughter finally saw Psychiatrist today.  She was paranoid, and had a meltdown, and she is now going to be changing anti-psychotics.  It will take several months to get her up to level on the new one while gradually reducing the old one.  I hope it will help.  She's really been struggling.  Last weekend she said, "Mom, I don't know why I'm so irritable.  I don't want to be.  I just can't stop it." 





She has  now spent 3 Tuesdays cleaning my house.  Overall, it is going very well.  It certainly is easing my stress.  She's better able to handle her program now that she's only there 3 days a week.  She's also getting better at setting aside her emotions to take care of her responsibilities.  She collected a long hug from Administrative Assistant and then got busy and completed all her volunteer tasks in the office.  She complained about one, AA said it wasn't hard, so she got busy and finished it.  When she was done, she asked if we had more things she could do.  She has grown so much.




I saw a new doctor this week.  A new orthopedic doctor.  My 3rd orthopedic doctor.  I went to see him to find out if I needed to have my ulna shortened.  He pointed out that ulna is definitely not where it should be, and I probably have ligament and other damage that is contributing to that.  He wasn't concerned about the ulna, though, because he took x-rays from different angles, and they showed that the radius has not healed.  There is still a gap between the bones.  I may be looking at a third major surgery on it, and that would probably take place with yet another specialist.



I broke my arm on May 11 of 2013.  The second surgery was in February of last year.  I'm pretty discouraged.  The good news is that as long as I wear my brace and avoid chopping down trees (or doing other impact work) I can work in my yard.  He twisted it around quite a bit, and it didn't hurt at the time, but it sure was sore the next day.  I go back in July-- after more time with the bone stimulator.  The good news is I only have to use it on one spot now, so it's 20 minutes a day instead of 40.

There are staff issues at Daughter's house.  I had a conversation with Home Owner following Psychiatrist appointment today.  She was going to address the issues.  Part of the challenge is knowing how much of Daughter's reporting is accurate.  I do think that staff has been taunting her.  As I told Home Owner, "It's not smart to poke a tiger."  She's also been giving her current anti psychotic incorrectly, which reduces its effectiveness.  There are also issues with her diet and diabetes management.  We are going to have these struggles as long as she is living in a group home.  She desperately wants to get out into an apartment on her own.  That won't be happening anytime soon.  However, it seems more like a possibility now than a couple of months ago.  I didn't think she'd be able to handle Tuesdays alone cleaning at my house.  But she is.  This week I left 3 bananas hanging on the counter, and when  I got home there were still 3 bananas on the counter.  That is real progress.