Monday, January 25, 2010
Intuniv not sucessful
Well, unfornately the intuniv is not working well for Kenz. She is now on the 4 mg. and her blood pressure has dropped too far. She also has complained of headaches, dizziness, and blurriness when she wakes up. Not to mention she is still irritable all of the time. Yes, it helped with staying calmer but what we were really looking for is help with the irritability. She hasn't had any rages lately but then she was not having any when she was not on the intuniv-since she came home from Hope Ranch we have only seen a couple. So we have to take her off the intuniv. It is not safe for her. I am not sure what this means. I have no idea what will happen when she goes off of it. She has to do it slowly or her blood pressure will really be effected. Feb. 8th needs to come soon! For those of you who don't know that is when she sees the head of psychiatry at Phoenix Children's Hospital. I hate that all of this medicine has such yucky side effects. I also hate that my child has to be on them. And I hate that if she is not on medicine life is miserable for her and for us. Actually, I just hate mental illness all together! And yes, I know hate is a strong word. But it is necessary right now.
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I am sorry the Intuniv didn't work for Kenz. What other meds is she on? I am just curious if she is on a mood stabilizer or not. Megan
ReplyDeleteAmy - I'm so sorry. I'm sure the fear of what will happen next and what the future holds has to be unnerving for you. I'm thinking of you and wishing for the 8th to hurry up and get here.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, hate is a strong word but it is the perfect word for feelings about BP. I can't say I know of anyone who would disagree with that.
*hugs*
Megan-Kenzie is on Seroquel 50 mg. and back to her vyvanse 40 mg. We have tried seroquel up to 150 mg and she couldn't even get out of bed the next day. We have tried lamitcal from Feb.09-June-09 and slowly increased and saw no change. We have tried lithium and that made her even more crazy-that was when she had three emotional meltdowns with screaming hysterically in one day-plus more. That is only one example. We tried Dapokoke(sp?) and that did nothing. Took her off of that before we tried the intuniv and there was no change either way. The only time we saw a true change in her was last Christmas when she was on zoloft, seroquel, and vyvanse. However, that wore off after about 4-6 weeks. This is why we need to see a GOOD psychiatrist! My opinion is that she has a mood disorder probably bipolar but not extreme bipolar(that is why the doctors are hesitant to diagnose her with that) with anxiety (OCD), and ADHD. I think the anxiety keeps her from doing crazy things when she is manic. For example, she would never get on her bike and ride across town because that would scare her to death. I also think her anxiety has and would prevent her from suicide because she is so scared of things. I even asked her once if she gets crazy ideas in her head and then won't do them because it scares her too badly. She said yes. Not sure if she was just agreeing with me or if she really does. But that is my gut feeling. She has done some crazy things that are not harmful and some that are harmful to her sisters-one that was an almost a terrible incident. That was when we sent her to Hope Ranch. She is also very complicated because she has non classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia. This is where the adrenal glands do not produce enough cortisol so her body compensates and produces too much testosterone. They fix this by giving her cortef, a low dosage of steroid, everyday. Then her body thinks she is getting enough cortisol and stops producing too much testosterone. And I have asked the endocrinologist many times if this has anything to do with her mental "Stuff" and he says no, not at all. However, we do have to make sure her body is not out of whack with that because anything that is not right with the body can cause the mental stuff to be out of whack as we all know. Thanks for asking. Have any ideas, let me know and I'll ask the doctor on Feb. 8th.
ReplyDeletee-squared thanks for the hugs!
ReplyDeleteWow! You have definitely been through some med trials! We went through a LOT too. Depakote made her so mentally dull that we had to hold her back a grade. Seroquel makes her gain weight. Geodon made her crazier. She has also been on many other things. Yes, you need a good psychiatrist for sure! Also, I do think that endocrine stuff affects them. My Caroline's cortisol is too high, but her testosterone is normal. Progesterone too low, making estrogen too high. I think that our kids are affected by a whole lot of things. Antibiotics have destabilized Caroline in the past.
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