Wednesday, April 25, 2012

this is not that post...

this is my motto these days...
Soon I am hoping to write a post that is more cheery and upbeat and filled with rainbows and unicorns... but this is not that post.

One day I will write a post that says someone is actually listening to me and believes what not only myself but the rest of the family  and his teachers at school sees...
but this is not that post.

There will come a day where I can say that I fully trust and have faith in our doctors...
but this is not that post.

Ever since Sam has been diagnosed with seizures we have dealt with so much that we are exhausted. Looking back over my posts from last summer/fall and reading how once Sam was on these lovely seizure medications how he has slipped further and further from us. His moods are severe and extreme, his tiredness is NOT typical teen behaviour, he doesn't eat yet is gaining weight, he doesnt exercise as he has no energy most days to get up the stairs to go to bed!

There have been days of violence towards siblings, verbal abuse towards siblings and Dennis and I, running away episodes, depressed days where we were scared to leave him alone... not pretty days to say the least. This last week has been one of those kind of weeks...
Monday he left school in fine moods, nothing happened on the bus (so we are told), the kids all came home, had a quick talk with me about what needs to be done for chores in the barn, and away they went ...
10 minutes later I recieved a text from Josh that Sam and Isaac were fighting and I was needed. Out I went to help. They were not fighting anymore and when I asked what was going on, Sam  proceeded to punch Ike in the chest and then the two of them counldnt really say what started it all. Then Sam suddenly walked away to the house where he packed a bag and was leaving.

No one understands him, we dont 'get' anything and he was outta here. We tried reasoning with him, telling him that if he was determined to leave he needed to call CFS and let them know he wants out. He yelled about it all and left ...
again
no meds, no wallet with ID, no medic alert bracelet (his broke last week and we are waiting for a new one), he doesnt have a cell phone, no money, no clothes.... nothing
so off he went and since we didnt know what to do anymore we called CFS and they directed us to call the RCMP. They said they could do nothing for us unless we want to report he was a danger to himself "so just follow him and keep him safe"
... so that is what we did. We were able to get him to talk to us for a few minutes in the van to learn
 his plan was to walk to Alberta to see a girl he met 2-3 years ago at cadet camp that he has been talking with on the phone for the last few months.  Then he got verbally abusive to me again and I told him to leave the van and we would continue to follow him.
 He got out and turned for home.

I am sorry but if this is typical teen behaviour then every other teen I have worked with are not 'normal'.
I did more research about the med Keppra he is on and this is what I found: (what Sam experiences are all in bold red)

KEPPRA

Common Side Effects

  • sleepiness
  • loss of strength and energy
  • dizziness
  • anxiety
  • nervousness
  • irritability
  • other mood changes



  • decreased ability to cope with daily life events
  • depression
  • thoughts of suicide
  • severe anxiety, agitation, or confused thought

VAL PROIC ACID


  • tiredness (sometimes with slower thinking)
  • dizziness
  • upset stomach
  • vomiting
  • tremor (shaking of the hands or other parts of the body
  • hair loss
  • weight gain
  • changes in behavior (depression in adults, irritability in children)
  • weakness, sluggishness, swelling of the face, loss of appetite, vomiting, or yellowish eyes or skin, especially in a child under 2 years of age (possible liver failure)
  • pain in the abdomen, upset stomach, vomiting, or loss of appetite (possible disease of the pancreas)
  • easy bruising, nosebleed, or other abnormal bleeding (problems with clotting)

I just wonder how many side effects does a person have to exhibit before they will look seriously at possibly changing the meds?! Sam has experienced all of this since the beginning of the seizure meds and now it is becoming increasingly worse.

Dennis apoke with Dr. A (neuro)  yesterday and explained everything to him and next week Sam will be starting to be removed from Keppra and on to CLOBAZAM for 6 months and then they will put him on Mylosine after that. So we can expect seizures and Sam is not to go for his learners permit (not a major thing right now) so we will see how that goes.
I also spoke with our family doc yesterday (Dr.T) and he says it is a combo of 4 things: teen years, meds, head injury and me...
yes me... I am caring too much and I need him to be a kid... no kidding!? really!? I am to let him go out and be a teen!? who knew!?  Sam has a busy social life! He is busy with cadets and does things with friends, visits with family (cousins and grandparents etc). He doesnt go out and party or even go to the movies too often but that is because it is a $$ issue and a distance thing! We have 4 kids to support and run after, sometimes there is no money to hand out so they can have everything they want. We encourage all our kids to get out and go hang with friends, but they choose not too some days so do we force them?!
I am so tired of people and doctors telling me that I need let him be a teen -- WTF do they think we are doing!? It is hard to get him to go to a friends house if they dont invite him or they dont except invites to our house. how do others know what happens in our house? do others know that we try to get the boys to go out but they choose not too.
It is one of those damned if I do and damned if I dont things again. The doctors (and other helpful people) tell us to do things, so we do it, then we are wrong or they ignore what we say is happening. Or if we let Sam be a teen and something happens it is "why did you not do this" (because you told us not too) or "why did you do this" (because you told us too) or if we GASP try to do it another (aka- think for ourselves) we get "what!?" 
I agree with my friend Marianne who says that the doctors are just 'practicing" medicine... but i beleive they need to 'practice' listening to the patient and caregivers just as much (and as fast) as they are ready to prescribe drugs....

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

so not a good day...


It sure feels lately like we have ben having more ‘off’ days than ‘on’... and not just with Sam. 
Everyone seems to be out of sorts or just not themselves... and I for one am exhausted. 
Between the medicine side effects and the brain injuries causing issues to teen drama and ‘relationships’  to medical problems am ready to jump ship and head for shore.
Yesterday I took Isaac to have his hearing tested and it seems that (by the test results anyway) his hearing is that of a 90yr old man in one ear. 
Isaac is 14... this is not good.
We are going to be going to another audiologist and according to the man we spoke to yesterday, he assumes it will be sooner rather than later due to his age and the test results. So off we will go to more appointments with specialists.
Sam has been forgetting meds,  missing classes at school (and not while he has been at home) and then this morning when we called him on staying up late texting on his iPod (which is NOT supposed to be in his room at night) he decided to go back to bed this morning and then miss school some more. He says we treat him like a child and when we give him the chance to act mature, he drops the ball and blames us. We are on a vicious treadmill right now with his attitudes. We are basically damned if we do and damned if we don’t. We make rule changes and he agrees with them, he makes new rules and we agree to them, then he does whatever he wants. 
typical teen behaviour.... ya ya ya
I know... but there is a pattern to this behaviour. Sam gets tired and he forgets his meds. He forgets his meds and he cops an attitude. We remind him to take his meds we are treating him like a child. We remind him of the doctors suggestions and we are babying him. We DON’T remind him, we don’t care. We give him an iPod to use with alarms to remind him to take meds, exercise, do things for himself... he turns the volume off and uses it only to texts, email and do other things. He texts inappropriate things to people, he is up all hours of the night .... which comes back around to being tired, missing meds, getting grouchy and irritable -- this results in missed school and classes, falling behind and taking a full year to do courses that should only take 1/2 a yr. 
He claims he wants to go to ‘regular’ classes which would be fine, except he has dropped the ball on this, where he could have proven to the school and teachers that he was ready for full regular classes (by going to every class, working diligently, getting his work done and staying caught up) he chose to fight it and skip classes, not hand in work, take his time with assignments the school will mostly likely say no to his request -- as he has not proven that he is able to handle regular classes. 
Which will bring us back around to being treated like a child, missing classes, etc, etc, etc... tiredness, skipped meds, etc, etc ... which will inevitably bring us to another day (if we are lucky only one!) where he has had enough of it all (as his brain convinces him that we are all against him and trying to keep him here) and want to go. 
go anywhere
anywhere but here...
There is drama also with Josh and his gf... I cant even get into that...
I am so emotionally drained right now after this morning with kids then I get a phone call from someone in Dauphin where we thot we might be able to get some psychological and emotional help for Sam. We were told that Dauphin is not the place for us and I was given a few other numbers to try.  I am so tired of everyone passing us onto someone else. There MUST be somewhere for us to go with these issues! 


I am looking into a neuro feedback program for Sam-- but it is in Edmonton, it is costly and if he is not onboard... why bother!? To be honest I am scared to call in case I do and they say "there is nothing we can do for him here either". I am jsut trying to find somewhere for him to get help with his brain injury! Why is this so damn hard!? Good grief!  
How many phone calls do I have to make? How many people do I have to tell our story too and relive July 28, 2008 every damn time!? Then explain about Josh...and Isaac & Hannah!? I have to laugh when they say (cuz they all do) “and what about YOU Jodi!?” 
I want to say “WHAT about me!?” If I could get doctors to listen to me and get Sam some proper help maybe.... just MAYBE I COULD find time for me!
so not a good day today...

Friday, April 13, 2012

who to believe!?

127/89 his blood pressure is high and now do this.... Dr. A

115/70 his blood pressure if fine  so don't worry about it .... Dr.T

His med levels are high... toxicly so... 134 & 136 and they should be between 50-100, so something needs to be done so go see Dr.A ... Dr.T

No need to worry, his med levels spiked so no changes for now and we will see you in 2-3 months  (btw no changes in meds for 2 years AND we will let Sam go for his learners license) ... Dr.A

OH! that is Typcial teenage life, they sleep a lot! We do not concern ourselves with the tiredness, he needs to exercise and eat and he will be fine-- it is not the medicine really, he is out of shape and will feel better after a month of exericse ... Dr.A

WHAT!? Med levels DO NOT spike and I am NOT confortable with this.  He is tired because of the meds and we need to work on his quality of life and find the best solution with the lowest possible doseage of meds. Go for more blood work and I will phone Dr.A and we will discuss this then I will call you .... Dr.T

This has been our last 2 weeks. One doctor telling us one thing, the other telling us the COMPLETE opposite. I feel like my head has been done in! I have been telling doctors since Sam was diagnosed with epilepsy last year that something is not right. NO teenager goes to bed at 8.30 VOLUNTARILY unless there is something not normal. Dr.T said yesterday that the reason why Sam is so tired could be because his levels are so high and at toxic levels.
The reason why he has trouble with writing at school or his eye sight some days is because he is at TOXIC levels....
I am so frustrated because they tell me to let them know when this or that happens and when I DO tell them I get brushed off. I know my son, I know teenage behaviour, I know that this is no jiving! I am tired of being told that it is all 'normal' when I know it isnt...

The trick now is to find the right doctor to listen to us!

Dr.A wants to wait 2 years with Sam on these levels (the val proic can absolutely wreck his liver over a long period) and then start to 'play' with the levels. But in 2 years we will be transferring to the adult side of things and then it gets worse! The whole reason we were sent backwards to  peds was because they could do stuff for us NOW! And now this doctor wants to wait. When I tried to point this out to him when we were there there, he shut me down fast but then never answered the question.
We have also been told by a teacher that they have noticed Sams eyes rolling and fluttering and when they look back it has stopped-- so they arent sure if they acually saw anything. So when I tell the doctors this (because they asked for me to record it and let themknow right away) they bruch me off and say "ya well it wasnt a grand mal. So .... no worries" SO why did you want me to track it? Sam's friends have noticed he has periods of 'spacing out' and yet when I tell the doctors this they say nothing except sign off on the paper work for him to get his learners driving permit!

I am so mad right now.... I am sick of doctors and their breaucractic crap it isnt funny. There might be kids worse off than Sam but that doesnt mean that they write him off! Our son is just as important as any other kid!

I am going to fight for my boy from now until the day I am with the Lord... so watch out doctors, I am on the war path now!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

everything and nothing

I have been struggling trying to get a post on here the last few weeks... I have so much going thru my head and so much to talk about ...

but nothing that I can actually form into words. 
I sit and the next thing I know 10minutes has passed...
I have so many words in my head, emotions in my heart and head but nothing can come out
I tried to talk to Sam's doctor last week and felt I was met with "oh that is typical teenage behaviour" but maybe it is just me ... 
maybe I am just
 ... everything and nothing...
I have tried to explain things to Dennis but cant find the words either. 
tears I have many...
headaches too many to count...

I wonder if things are getting to where they are going to be and now I am just 'coming down' off the life we have been living the last almost 4 years...
I am not sure 
I am not sure about much these days

I feel just so everything and nothing....