May 3, 2008

• Longer Than Long Friday

  Yesterday kinda went like it was supposed to.
  
  *  10:15  Leave the house & pick up Stephanie’s RX from the drug store down the street from me.I forgot to pick up Stephanie’s RX at the drug store by my house, because . . . immediately after leaving the house, I remembered I forgot to give her MY pills that don’t work (she has the same prescription) to help save her money.  So, I turned around and came back to my house and completely forgot to stop up at the corner pharmacy.
  *  10:30  Pick up Stephanie and JanaLyn  It was more like 10:45 when I picked her up and we “flew” up the turnpike, getting her to work 1 minute early.
  *  11:00  Stephanie has to be at work
  *  11:30  Take Luci to a new doctor for another (4th) opinion about her taking psych drugs  I arrived at 11:15 and found out the doctor’s appointment was actually at *1:00* (sigh!)  So she gave me new-patient paperwork to fill out and told me to come back  at 12:45.
  *  12:30  Drop off two boxes I have prepared for mailing.  I dropped off my two packages around 11:30 (Jennifer and the “other” Lori, you should have them in a few days) with plenty of time to spare.
  *    1:00  Grab lunch for me and the four girlies somewhere CHEAP!!!  We went to McDonald’s around 11:45 and got some lunch and the girls played until 12:35.  We took a potty and washing hand break and headed back to the new doctor for Luci.

  Side Note:  He agreed that she should not be on ANY medication for ODD and said he’d be happy to speak to my husband if he needed to hear from a doctor WHY medication for Luci isn’t appropriate.  He also spoke very directly to Luci about her rotten fits and bad behavior.  She refused to make eye contact with him or speak more than a few words.

  *   
  2:00  Be at the girls’ therapy appointment.  The therapist will see
  each girl 30 minutes on Fridays only from now on – saving me gas on
  Thursdays – yay!  Annamarie went for the first 30 minutes and Luci had the last half.  The therapist called me in before Luci’s session was over and said Luci was being distant or vague with her and asked what was up.  I told her my feeling was that the she (the therapist) and now this new doctor had basically “found out” what Luci is *really* like and the “gig is up” with both people.  Luci was almost sullen and I felt a lot of anger was brewing inside of her.  (Read later :  Turns out I couldn’t have been more right!)

  *    3:00  Pick up Stephanie at the end of the
  girls’ appointment.  She gets off at 3pm, so she shouldn’t have to wait
  very long for us to arrive.  Picked up Stephanie around 3:20 and she was ready to leave.  It was good that we didn’t have to wait, because JanaLyn was getting gripey and Luci was becoming more hateful by the minute.
  *  Stephanie and I need to buy a few
  things at the Wal-Mart (located by her) and I have to pick up some
  refilled prescriptions there.  I’ve done the bulk of my Wal-Mart
  shopping at the store closer to us, in order to save a bit of money.  This was an oh so much fun grocery trip, NOT!

  Luci insisted on touching things on the shelves from the moment we got there  – a no-no rule when they shop anywhere with me.  I made her put both of her hands on the cart’s handle and that’s when the explosion occurred.  She chewed on the handle, growled, gritted her teeth together, jumped up and down, screamed, and so on.  I ignored her and she began violently shaking the cart trying to tip it over and (worse yet) run into her sisters.  I made the other girls stay behind me for safety reasons and chose to ignore Luci.  She was unapproachable and nothing I said would have mattered anyway.

  We continued through the store with her yelling, crying, and shaking the cart (with the occasional growling and biting the handle).  She continued to try to yank the cart out of my hands and in a different direction than we were going and (when the coast was clear) I let her.  She never went more than a few feet from me and would stop once she realized she had control but didn’t really know where to go.  She seemed to need to be in control with the power to make the cart go where SHE wanted it.  Eventually, she became more quiet and just whined she was hungry and her fit escalations moved further apart.  You can imagine what a long grocery trip that was for me – with her defying my every move and me never speaking a word except for several times I had to whisper that she was to put BOTH hands on the cart. 

  I made her sit alone in the third seat of the Suburban when we took Stephanie and JanaLyn home and as we rode back to our own house.  She feel asleep.  We were unloading groceries (car doors all left open, so she wouldn’t feel trapped when she woke up).  I heard blood curdling screams coming from the car.  She thought she was still in Wal-Mart and was, once more, fighting – although no one was there.

  She came into the house screaming and crying and was sent to her room.  She began to try to kick a hole in her bedroom wall and was so violent that I gave her a “cold” shower, which made her finally settle down.  I told her she could eat dinner first and then go to bed.  She did eat (complained the whole time her hotdog was slipping out of the bun) but no one went into the kitchen to acknowledge her “new” complaint.  While we ate OUR dinner, I checked on her in her room and she had fallen asleep.  These fits of hers are so violent that she must wear herself out.  It wears me out just witnessing them!!!

  Anyway, I cleaned the kitchen and realized I was exhausted.  I changed into my nightgown and, at 8something, laid down on the bed to relax and watch HGTV.  I promptly fell asleep.  I woke up once to use the restroom and slept until 8:15 this morning.

  Somehow I keep thinking if I bring order to the rest of my chaotic life, Luci’s chaotic outbursts won’t be as horrible for me to endure.  I hated like the dickens to have to tell the other girls to stay away from Luci while we were in the store Luci she was dangerous at that moment.  No one should have to grow up being told their sister is dangerous and that they should watch out – but, the two seem to take it in stride and chalk it up to, “Oh, that’s just Luci having one of her spells.”

  In a minute, I’ll post some pictures of my organizing efforts within my house.  Maybe someone can glean some hints from how I’ve set things up.  I started right before the Y2K scare and have pretty much kept a stocked pantry since then.

  For now, bye -bye

  • 11:44 am
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