Hard Times in the Midwest

Suicide, , , , ,

Trigger warning:  discussion of suicide.

 

Once again, I haven’t posted for a while.  This is because Deeply Beloved Daughter is doing badly.

She’s in her senior year of university now, and very successful academically, but the last six months have been a total disaster emotionally.

She was sexually assaulted (to her credit, she pressed charges and the guy is now in jail, but it was super hard).  Her sister developed a life-threatening illness, which really scared her.  Her grandmother, whom she felt very close to, died.  And one of her best friends from high school committed suicide.  One trauma after another.  And all through this, she maintained her mask of being “normal”/neurotypical (her choice, not her parents) and worked hard at school  But the additional pressure of final exams did her in.  She began self-harming and talked about suicide.

So here she is, in her third week on a psychiatric unit where no one understands anything about autism (we had to explain meltdowns to them), where she can’t escape the fluorescent lights or the noise, where the staff are constantly criticizing her, and where she’s being heavily drugged with useless and potentially very harmful stuff.  Two days after Christmas she goes before a judge who will probably commit her to a state hospital.  (Yes we have lawyers and expert opinions, etc., but we are not very hopeful).

Those of you who pray, please pray for us.  Everyone else:  fight like hell for better psychiatric care for autistic people.

 

 

 

 

The Last Five Months

The Cat

. . . have been unbelievably bad around here.  One member of the family dead (a natural death at an advanced age, but still hard), another member diagnosed with not one, but two life-threatening diseases, a third raped and suffering from PTSD.  Beloved husband and I have been coping, but just barely.  Even the noble dog and the bloody cat have been affected by the stress in the house.  In case you were wondering, that’s why you haven’t heard from me for so long.

The repercussions continue, but I hope (always hope) that I will be able to start posting things again soon.

Six Days in the ICU

Uncategorized

I mostly write about my older daughter–the one with autism–in this blog.  But younger daughter has her problems too, and last week they became acute.  She had been feeling off for about two months, with a persistent cough and fatigue.  But then about ten days ago she called up and asked me to take her to the E.R.  She was extremely pale and her tongue had a green (!) tinge.  I got her there, they took one look and started the process of admitting her to the hospital.  She was extremely anemic, and had a startling low number of platelets in her blood.  Two days later, she was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis (where, I have to say, they have been absolutely fantastic with her care).

The immediate problem was an extremely rare (2 cases in every million people–lucky us!) blood disorder called Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, in which the immune system attacks the blood.  She had to have repeated transfusions of blood and platelets, as well as an extremely scary drug that is the best treatment for AHUS, but increases the risk of contracting Meningitis by 1,000%.

After six days of intensive testing, during which she got sicker and sicker, they determined that the underlying cause was Lupus.  Once they started treatment for that, there was an immediate improvement.  She didn’t have to have lots of pain medicine and she could eat without vomiting.  Last night she was visited in the ICU by a therapy dog.  She was able to get out of bed and hug him, which made her (and us) burst into tears.

In short, the chaos continues here in the Midwest.  But what a relief to have her feeling better.

 

The Bloody Cat in Exile

The Cat

Alas, the poor cat.  Older daughter was recently hospitalized, so we took her dog into our house to care for until she was well enough to deal with him again.  The dog is a huge beast, of uncertain genetic heritage, and a total sweetheart.  Unfortunately, though, his idea of showing affection involves a lot of leaping around, barking, and wrestling, and our little feline is terrified of him.  So in the end we had to place her in a boarding kennel, for her own peace of mind.  Hoping to bring her home today, but Hobbes (the huge beast) is still with us, so we will have to find a way to keep her calm and the two of them apart for a little bit longer.