May 2012 happenings

Dakota had an appointment with Dr. Watson a couple of weeks ago. We agreed that Dakota needed to be on a higher dosage of Abilify. He used to be, but the doctor in Omaha kept trying to wean him off of it. I also decided not to take Dakota to the doctor in Omaha anymore. For one thing, going there is a pain in the butt – but mostly, Dakota has only gotten worse since going there. Dr. Watson is going to take over managing his meds again. She agrees that the Semantic Pragmatic Disorder that the other doctor diagnosed him with sounds a lot like him, but she doesn't think that's the only thing going on – and John and I completely agree. I talked with Dr. Watson about the possibility of Bipolar, and she said that it's a possibility. Actually, she was looking through Dakota's file, and she had actually written that down as a diagnosis a long time ago. She had never mentioned that to me, and she seemed to have forgotten that she had written it down. But... she said that the symptoms of Bipolar can also be seen in kids with Autism and she really feels that Dakota falls somewhere on the autistic spectrum. So, I feel like we're sort of at square one still. No diagnosis. She says she doesn't really make diagnosis because
all the symptoms of so many disorders overlap one another. What she does is treat the symptoms... The day after this appointment, Dakota had a particularly bad day. He ended up having to go to the principal's office at school. He has never had to do that. He refused to do his work. Dakota told me that 2 people came and got him, and held his arms really tight to take him to the office. Makes me wonder if he was struggling to get away from them. The school never called and told me about any of this – Dakota told me himself. Luckily, things have been going pretty well since.

Mother's Day was good. The day before, Mikayla kept talking about how she was going to make me breakfast in bed. She was going to make me toast and tea, lol... That morning, the kids came in and gave me a package of poptarts. Dakota decided that he wanted one of them. Mikayla wanted half of mine. So, my breakfast in bed consisted of half a poptart. Kids are so funny. The kids both brought home a flower they planted at school. It's been over a week now, and I haven't killed them yet! I have them right beside the sink so I don't forget to water them. Mikayla's hasn't bloomed yet, but it keeps getting taller. I don't know much about plants. I wonder if it's ok to keep them in the cups they are in, or if I need to plant them... That's the bad thing about living in an apartment. Speaking of which, we are thinking of buying a house – if we can find a decent one that we can afford...

The Fibro group I'm in is doing really well with spreading awareness. A news guy from The Daily Forum came to one of our meetings to do a story. On the 12^th, we held a craft show and it was really successful. There were around 60 vendors there. We are having another one on September 22^nd. Last week, I was nominated to be the treasurer of the group, so I feel honored about that.

School is over for the summer – for me and the kids both. Of course, Mikayla is sad and Dakota is excited about not having to go to school. They couldn't be more opposite. I'm glad to have them home with me. I'm especially relieved to be done with the semester at my school. It was rough. I'm not taking any summer classes because you can't get loans for them, you have to pay cash. There are some weird things about this school... I almost don't know if I want to finish. I feel so overwhelmed with school on top of my graphic design business, the kids, housework... On top of that, I'm dealing with my Fibromyalgia which is more debilitating to me than my arthritis. I have hours every day where I'm pretty much useless. I am so extremely exhausted, I can't stay awake. I do so much better at night. When the sun is out, I doze off. The other day, I fell asleep at my desk. You know how when you doze off, you usually still manage to stay upright? Well, I fell forward and hit my forehead really hard on my desk. I would have liked to have seen myself do that. I bet that looked pretty pathetic. Luckily, nobody saw...