Day Treatment, day 4

We gave the day treatment staff a brief vacay last Thursday and Friday, but this morning we were up-n-at-em again. I got to air some of my grievances privately to the professional staff, mainly that behavior modification ALONE wasn't cutting anyone's mustard in this house, and that we needed some medication intervention ASAP. They need to see up-to-date labs on her, which we'll be drawing tomorrow morning early, and then they're going to gradually switch her to Risperdal from the currently ineffective Geodon (which works for some folks, just not for us).

And they worked with her pretty intensively today on owning up to the role she plays in the peacefulness (or absence of such) in our family. She came up with a list of three things she can do to contribute to a happy home atmosphere.

She was very tetchy and cantankerous on the way home, but I kept my cool and told her it was too bad she was choosing to be insulting and grouchy. She clammed up, but continued to harass and harangue, so she didn't earn a point. At home she was incensed that supper wasn't immediately ready, so I told her I could see that she was having some trouble holding it together and that she should go use her coping plan. She was REALLY pissed that I wouldn't let her eat something else instead (food issues are a real trigger, it seems), but she did go upstairs and wait.

At supper I dished out everyone's food and we sat down together. She was still agitated, but we were patient and quiet and continued to talk in calm tones. I asked her to bring me her folder with her point sheets, which she did begrudgingly, and as soon as I began filling out her point sheet she underwent an instant transformation into Cooperative Martha. She began bubbling over to tell me about her day at Day Treatment and the things they talked over and worked through.

One very encouraging thing that the lady at Day Treatment told me privately was that Martha was putting forth a gargantuan effort NOT to lose it during the day... and that children with seriously big mental illness issues CAN'T exert that much control for that amount of time. It doesn't mean she doesn't have significant issues, obviously, but it does mean that some of the more serious problems can be ruled out.

And we plug away.

We're waiting right now for the arrival of the Purple Fish Guts family, who are spending the night with us on their way to a family wedding event. I'm going to go into the kitchen now and start making some guacamole; I stopped at the Dallas Farmer's Market this afternoon and picked up the ingredients. YUMMY!