Service Dogs: Not Just for the Blind Anymore

Dogs are being trained to help more than just blind or visually impaired persons. I am checking into getting a service dog for DD and have found a wealth of information on the Internet. Some examples of other types of service dogs are:

Hearing Dogs;
Mobility Assistant Dogs;
Walker Dogs;
Seizure Alert Dogs;
Autism Dogs; and
Psychiatric Service Dogs.

I have included links to some of the websites I came across. Some places even offer "combo" service dogs that are trained to help persons with multiple disabilities.

disabled children

This Week in Our Journey: Ending April 3, 2009

I believe that my two previous posts have touched on what all has been going on this week. I will say that DD has received 100's on her behavior chart for the days she has been in school. We have the math TAKS next week and I pray that the stress will not be too much for her. The night before the reading TAKS she had a panic attack. She did go on to pass it. We are proud of her for doing so. Her Language Arts teacher had a 95% passing rate for all her classes, so they are having a celebration today in class.

We have been studying Job the past few Sundays in worship service. Here is a man who lost his family, his fortune, and was sitting in the dump because he was unclean and could not be within the city gates. Through it all he was still able to say to God: "I know that you can do all things, no plan of yours can be thwarted." Job 42:2. Wow! I know that God can do all things and He has great plans for my precious child. I just have to sometimes be reminded of it and that even though things seem bad now, God is not going to let anything or anyone get in the way of His plans.

Been a While: Part Deux

Can't sleep so I thought I would blog.

As you know we were working DD off of her meds. At the beginning of January we were down to just Risperdal, Tenex, and Lexapro. We went down 1/2 mg on the Risperdal and that was as far as we got. Mid-January she started having meltdowns at home and school. Nothing like they were before, but enough to cause concern. Mid-January through March are always a rough time of year for DD. So working her off any more meds was put to a stop and we actually increased the Risperdal and Lexapro. That helped some but not enough. She was still having mild meltdowns up to about a week ago when they really started getting bad and culminated with her having a major one in the doctor's office and the doctor admitting her to the hospital. The doctor added lithium back into her med mix and told me that I am just going to have to come to the realization that she needs to be on these meds. I am torn as I know that we can have very good days without a mood stabilizer (the six weeks prior to mid-January), but if I take her off again will it only last just a short time? She was released from the hospital on Tuesday. I hate the way she is right now. She is sleepy all the time and she has that swollen look about her again. There has got to be another solution out there...I just don't know what. She sleeps pretty much from the time she gets home until the time she goes to school so I really don't know if she has improved or not. Even though one doctor in the past told me that I should be grateful that she sleeps so much, because the solution to that would be to have her angry all the time. I refuse to let her sleeping all the time be okay. It's not. That leads me back to getting a proper diagnosis. I was told that next available appointment for the Learning Center at Texas Children is in September. I am still waiting for the packet to fill out and return before I can get an appointment so the next available appointment may be past September by the time I can make one. I was hoping to have some definitive answers before she starts high school in August. I am so worried that because of the improper diagnosis that whatever the correct diagnosis turns out to be, the treatment plan we start will be too late to do her any good. I am so angry with myself for being so naive and trusting in thinking that the doctors (five of them) were correct in saying that she was Bi-Polar. They are suppose to be the experts afterall, right? So why not trust them. Her current doctor has migrated away from that diagnosis and on her discharge papers listed her Axis I diagnosis as Mood disorder NOS (not otherwise specified). I hope I am making sense and not rambling on. I am just frustrated.

I am still believing God to work a mighty miracle in DD's life and to bring back my precious daughter to me. Have a blessed Friday.

Been a While: Part 1

So much for blogging on a regular basis! Going back to school has taken up a lot of my time. I am going to try to blog on a more consistent basis for now on. I don't have a lot of time so I will try to bring this blog up to date in parts.

Where to begin to bring everyone up to date without writing a book. Let's see. We finally were able to get the psychological evaluation completed. I feel that in some aspects it was a complete and total waste of time. When we went to the feedback session to go over the results, the doctor said to take his diagnoses with a grain of salt because he is not even sure he got it right. As of right now she is diagnosed with having: major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, cognitive disorder nos, and oppositional defiant disorder. He also put in that we need to rule out mood disorder based in a neurological defect and pervasive developmental disorder. He also said that if she is diagnosed with PDD then the first two diagnoses would just roll up under that. So I am in the process of trying to get DD into the Learning Center at Texas Children's Hospital and feel that it is going to take an act of Congress to get it done. I have to say that her pediatrician's office has been very helpful in getting the referrals done and keeping me up to date.

More on the journey tomorrow....

Till then don't stop fighting for your families. Nehemiah 4:14