Good News & Bad

I realize it's been around Thanksgiving since the last update. 'Tis the season & all that jazz. Add in doctor & dentist appointments, holiday parties starting & regular things like church...well, not much time to sit down, much less blog.

Our time with son#2 the day before Thanksgiving was just wonderful. I couldn't have asked for anything other than another t-shirt. (He was wearing the same one he wore the last time we visited.) And he *did* have a new owie on his forehead.

He has made some progress with which we are so pleased with. We are stunned to see him work in therapy with a puzzle. Lolly asks him for each animal & varies it up in no particular order & son#2 can hand the piece to her. This may sound small but I assure you it isn't!
He can also put them back in the correct place as she calls them out.

The brothers truly enjoyed their time together.
Son#2 is also topped out on his ADHD meds. This is more good news because he is doing well on them. The school teacher he has emailed me that he can focus for much longer periods of time now & get things accomplished that are asked of him.
Even Lolly can get him to sit through a one-on-one therapy session for 20 minutes before he tries to get up.
However, this means he is currently taking/on four meds counting Zyrtek. And they seem in no hurry to remove that one for some reason either.

Lolly called last Wednesday for our weekly phone therapy session and told me the staff is reporting some crying spells son#2 is having. They are finding nothing to be the cause so they believe him to be missing us & depressed. THAT is heartbreaking. My stomach & heart both sank. They want to put him on an anti-depressant. I was immeditely skeptical. All I've read & seen in the news about these type of drugs in kids, seems to lead to bad end results. Like suicide attempts.
I had to give verbal consent but Lolly assured me that was a different branch of anti-depressants & the one they would use would be mild and he would be observed 24 hrs a day.
Maybe that bring more comfort if I knew they were totally responsible & trustworthy with things...like say, clothing.
Double edge sword---I don't want my baby crying & sad. To think he's having (hormones too) feelings of confusion, loneliness or sadness & can't express them almost breaks me. Some people try to tell me he wouldn't know he's away from us. He does. Believe me when I say some of his thought processes are behind in development but he DOES miss his family.
It *is* a sad thing being away from family & with strangers. It's not the warmest environment. But to trust there won't be a bad reaction like I've seen from him with meds in the past....there's the rub.
It boils down to trust. In God above all & that Camelot will indeed keep an eye on him. He's already trying to run his head into things. And they've kept that from going further, so I guess it's worth trying. The poor baby's been in a "hold" several times in the past few weeks. One time lasted 19 minutes. That just kills me to think of him on the floor, with people on top of him holding his down on his stomach until he calms down.
So I said yes to the anti-depressant. We'll see. Lolly calls tomorrow for an update. Been a rough week. I've barely gotten to talk to him on the phone. They either aren't answering the several times I call or he won't "talk" back to me.

And the bad of the bad news is, son#2 won't be able to be home for Christmas. I can't talk much more about that. I'm trying to keep busy so I don't have to think about it. Sure he doesn't know what day it is, but he'll see a lot of other kids leaving with their families on a pass. We just haven't worked up to that amount of time yet.

So:
Good---progress with ADHD med and it's working & learning his puzzles.
Bad---needs fifth drug, an anti-depressant & can't come home for Christmas.
So hug those kiddos--grown & small tight this Christmas. I'd never have thought a year ago that my nest would be minus one this holiday season.