JUST LIFE

     

Hey friends...

   I got on here and could not remember where to put the title post! Not kidding.

   David, my grandson, is doing okay on the new med--which is Remicade. He lost so much schooling last fall on the Humira and steroids, he's having an awful time catching up and I have to say, his parents are helping him "a lot "on his homework. I'd say "too much". 

   I know he stays tired and doesn't get to sleep until late at night, and then sleeps til three or four in the afternoon---but I know he could be gotten on a better schedule. He doesn't even go out to the pond and fish anymore--which was his greatest hobby. 

This isn't going to help him next year when I suppose he will go back to school.  Or he will have to be homeschooled, which perhaps, should have been done this year. 

   This year, he's just sending in his homework, and getting work from school ---and I won't say any more about how it gets done. He always made straight A's or better, and when he started getting B's and C's,  it literally made him sick, and stressed him out terribly. Not because of his parents, but he was not understanding why he couldn't "get it". anymore.  His brain was on hold--I guess from the medications, puberty and the new place to live, no church, no friends, no kids in the neighborhood to get to know, the illness and so many things.

   It made him think about suicide and told his parents he just didn't feel like living anymore.

   We took that very seriously, because how do you not? When a boy of 11 has been having bloody diarrhea for several years, and doctors say, "It's not serious!" and then later hears he has something that will never go away. 

   He'll always have to take medicines for it, it's incurable, it may stunt his growth, shorten his life and  I  know he wonders what's left!. The medicines for it may easily cause cancer. it has made all of the family, including us, wonder, worry, and pray!

  He has a sister who just turned 11. She's been having to see a therapist since David started because she says she "hears voices" that tell her to do violent things, and that she's bad--a bad person. The "voice" is something we don't know is "real" because she's just 11. We don't know if she can really describe it. Does she "think" it? Does she really "HEAR it"?  Is it a thought? Does she "see it in her mind"? Does it come from the scary movies she's been allowed to watch and the books she's been allowed to read?

  Does she think that so much attention has been on her brother that she needs to know they care about her too? What is this thing?

   She hasn't said she will hurt herself or really thinks about doing it, but whatever she calls "the voice" tells her to hurt her family. (As in killing them.) She was taken to a psychiatrist and given two meds, which are Prozac and something given to patients for auditory hallucinations. It may be manic-depression--they're just guessing and trying to medicate her without a true DX, I believe. I don't like it when doctors may be giving anyone medication when there isn't a sure diagnosis. I do believe she may need to stay in a hospital for juveniles who have these thoughts and then given therapy and meds if they deem it necessary. But, what I think doesn't matter, because it's second-guessing my son and his wife, and I can't do that. They have enough on them. They're not stupid.

   Friends, I don't know how to help, but to visit and talk to them. And pray,  and pray some more about my two grandchildren who have always behaved, gotten marvelous grades, and had more friends than they could count. 

   My son told me, "Mama, I never, ever thought we'd have these kinds of problems with the kids. I thought maybe when they got older, they'd sneak out, drink beer, drive without a license, run away! Now I only wish we'd have 'simple problems' like that!"

   Yeah, me, too!

                                                                 

                                                                                          the wanderer