In part 3, I’ll describe our current treatment plan, using diet and supplements and avoiding prescription medication.  Please note, this is our story.  Do not suddenly stop any prescribed medications or therapies based on an internet blog post!

I had been searching for answers for Mr. R  for years. Through lots of research, I settled on a plan. At first, I banned sugar. Turns out the real problem was the fake food dyes that sugary kid treats contained. Now he can eat sugar – as long as it’s in something natural.

Now, his diet is no artificial food dyes (Red #40, Yellow #5, Blue Lake, etc.). No MSG. No petroleum based preservatives (BHT/BHA/TBHQ). They put those things in the bag that keeps cereal fresh! Should we really eat these?

No artificial sweeteners. I use Equal to kill fire ant mounds in my yard. Again, can this possibly be healthy? I’ve got a ton of links, and books, that helped me come to this conclusion – you are what you eat, and what you don’t eat.  You’ve probably noticed my interest in “real food”.

(Side effects of food additives)

(Links to studies on apartame)

(Links to studies on MSG)

(More on MSG)

(Anecdotal evidence, plus recipes and resources)

(The Straight Dope on MSG) (this is like Snopes.com)

(Studies on BHA/BHT/TBHQ)

Next, I treated him for a condition known as Pyroluria. It’s standard to treat BP people in the Netherlands for this, but in America, big Pharma can’t make money off it so there aren’t many studies and it’s considered “alternative”.  I’m down on the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA, and my skepticism about government groups and lobbying organization grows everyday.

Pyroluria is a vitamin deficiency – like scurvy or rickets. Specifically, it is a B vitamin deficiency, and usually zinc too (B vitamins and zinc are linked in their metabolizing process). Often, there is a copper toxicity. Too much copper displaces the zinc. There is a simple urine test for this, but it costs $70-$100 and I haven’t had it done.  In one study, interestingly, almost 7o% of schizophrenic patients, and 80% of alcoholics were diagnosed with pyroluria, and their symptoms improved once they started taking the correct vitamins.  Alcoholism and bipolar are well known to be co-morbid, that is, appearing together, and the current theory is that many bipolar people use alcohol to self medicate.

(Pyroluria)

(Treatment history and results)

(Natural treatments for pyroluria)

We also supplement with omega-3 fatty acids. Even American studies have shown that in addition to heart health, these important nutrients increase focus, help alleviate depression, and stabilize mood.

Sometimes I throw in some acidophilus – yeah, the stuff in yogurt that you take so you don’t get a yeast infection – to cure his burpy/fart problem.   Now that he’s been more or less off the stuff he reacts to, we don’t need it so much.

Now, the kid, as I mentioned, would probably die before swallowing a pill, so I searched high and low and found chewables without food dyes in them for the B vitamins and Zinc, and he takes Coromega, which is like a spoonful of orange pudding in a little packet. Acidophilus is naturally chewable.

We also have added the supplements of inositol and choline, which help with mood stability, anxiety, and just seem to help him have a more even keel.

That’s the story of our journey into, and out of psych meds.

We are successfully treating bipolar disorder through nutrition. Mr R can read at grade level now, and is in a mainstream classroom.  He loves school and gets good reports and progress reports. He knows many sounds for A - apple, father, ate, and the silent one – read (past tense). He is teaching himself cursive (so he can read my notes to his teacher, I suspect!) and also teaching himself to draw from books and online tutorials.

He’s a regular kid again! Thanks be to God.

Books that helped tremendously:

Head

The Explosive Child, by Dr. Ross Greene

The Myth of the ADD Child:50 Ways to Improve Your Child’s Behavior and Attention Span Without Drugs, Labels, or Coercion, by Thomas Armstrong

The New Strong Willed Child, Dr. James Dobson (didn’t help with dear son, but sure did for brother #2 and sister #3!);

The Difficult Child, by Dr. Stanley Turecki

Transforming the Difficult Child, The Nurtured Heart Approach by Howard Glasser I was truly desperate to try this approach, but something had to give. I thought it was a miracle short term, we used it for 3 months when I was home alone and husband was out of state. It helped us “reset” our expectations, and our other discipline works very well now

Heart

No Greater Love, by Mother Teresa

The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas A Kempis

Food and Diet

Why Your Child Is Hyperactive, by Dr. Ben Feingold

The Joy of Cooking, by Irma Rombauer. The old one, not the new 2006 one. The new one uses things like cream of mushroom soup – can’t do that if you’re avoiding MSG! The old one tells you how to make everything from scratch. I got mine new in 1997.

Eating Well for Optimum Health, Dr. Andrew

Linking up!

Bipolar Kid: Our Family’s Tale part 3 originally appeared on Mama Says on August 11, 2010. If you see this posted on any other site, please let me know! Leave me a comment on www.milehimama.com

In part 1, I shared with you with stories of my rocky parenting of our firstborn, Mr R.  We finally got a diagnosis of bipolar for him.  Here’s how we coped immediately after the diagnosis.

Also at age 7, he began attending a small private school with his brother. He was in a mixed Kindergarten/first grade classroom. His brother, a newly minted 6 year old, was in Kindergarten – and my son was placed there as well. Brother made progress – his teacher called him a model student. My BP son would have failed Kindergarten, except I withdrew him early because of a lot of complicated politics at the church. He was there on scholarship – my family has been associated with that church for quite a while, and although I didn’t attend the parish, my brother, landlord, and several friends did. I cleaned the school twice a month and volunteered as part of tuition, as well. My son’s first grade teacher, in her sixties and truly a gifted educator, agreed with me that something was seriously wrong.

Before he started school that year, I took him to our priest for a special blessing. Not quite a full exorcism, which requires an investigation and the approval of the bishop, but one step down from that. I really do think I explored every option. (well, I didn’t do past life regression. I said I’m a quack, not stupid and crazy.) I read all manner of books, prayed, slipped Scripture verses under his pillow. Husband annointed the house with oil and rebuked Satan. (He’s a Baptist turned non-denominational).

I had him tested by the local school district, who gave him the ironic label of “Significantly Identifiable Emotional Disability”. I say ironic, because they did not identify the emotional disability, just called him SIED.  But he did qualify for services, which, in that rural district and through the private school, was going to consist of twice weekly sessions with a social worker to work on self esteem issues.

I declined, and was then accused of child abuse. It seems that putting dear son in the shower to help snap him out of his 6 hour rages is abusive. I thought not giving your child a bath was abusive, but I guess I’m not a trained social worker. A child voluntarily taking a bath is ok. Making them do it is not. Go figure. I think it’s because the school district, one ofthe less affluent, wasn’t going to get their federal funds for my son unless they provided some sort of service for him, and they were trying to pressure me. Ha! I am not easily pressured, swayed, or influenced. I believe I am what people call mule-headed.

Anyway, throughout all of this, I was working 2 jobs, then 1 job, had a baby, and spent several months with my husband working out of state to support us. Still seeking treatment through the medical establishment. Finally getting a diagnosis.

My husband and I made the decision to put dear son, age 7, on antipsychotic medication. A dangerous proposition, especially as this was an off-label use (that medication has since been approved for use in autistic children.) However, bipolar disorder has a 15% fatality rate (from suicide), not counting shortened lifespans from alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and risk taking behaviors, which BP’s do at an astronomical rate. He had already talked about killing himself, and we ended up having to lock the knives up for a while, with the food, since I kept finding them in his room. Remember, this kid was a scrawny 7 year old, not a troubled teen!

A few weeks went by. Dear son, always the special one, will not take medicine or pills. He’s also the biggest wimp. So, we figured out how to put the pills in a spoonful of applesauce – sometimes several spoonfuls – and tweaked the dose and the timing. The medication made him more normal. Able to stop himself before he got mad-but when he got mad, it was all over. Could be 4-6 hours before he was coherent again, another 2-3 before he was a little boy again. He had those rages several times a week. He is about 18 months to 2 years behind in emotional development, plays better with 6 year olds than 8 or 9 year olds, and I think a large part of this is the time he missed when he was raging. He would rarely remember anything that happened, would express surprise at broken toys, would ask me what happened to the wall… he literally had 15-20 hours a week of his entire life missing.

The medication gave our family a break. It allowed my spirit, as well as his, to heal. I had a heart for my son again. I had been praying for years – literally – to love him the way I do now. So much damage is done, however, when I would spend hours holding him in the basket weave hold while he thrashed and spit and bit and said all manner of nasty things.

Everything was on hold all of the time because of him.  Meals were destroyed, siblings caught in the crossfire, and many trips were not taken. Family relationships were affected as many thought I was too easy, should spank him more, needed to crack down, needed to be consistent. Even though my other children were turning out pretty good. Others in my family thought I needed to lighten up, relax, give the kid a break. I couldn’t win for losing. My dear son also developed quite and acrimonious relationship with his grandmother.

The meds helped us heal, and allowed us to get on with our lives. I took dear son out of school in April. He turned 8, I quit my job and was home with him, again trying the homeschooling to catch him up. Husband went out of state for 7 weeks, we moved across the country, and dear son started in a wonderful special education program at the public school. His class has 5 students, 2 adults (teacher and assistant), and is designed specifically for children who are behind grade level due to emotional/mood problems. It is truly a godsend!

The medication sabbatical, and a training system detailed in “Transforming the Difficult Child: The Nurtured Heart Approach“, really helped us get our feet back under us. The credit system from the book has since been dropped, but it allowed him to see he could do better. It allowed me to replace my mental image of him, to see he could do well, even excel, be normal, have a conversation. It was exactly what we needed. However, I wasn’t comfortable giving him this medication for life. There are serious side effects, including heart disease, high cholesterol, and long term use can cause diabetes. I kept looking for a better way.

Bipolar Kid: Our Family’s Tale part 2 originally appeared on Mama Says on August 2, 2010. If you see this posted on any other site, please let me know! Leave me a comment on www.milehimama.com

I am a quack.  Or, I would be if I had a medical license.  This is the story of how my son was diagnosed with a mental disorder and has found healing in diet and supplements and family life.  He’s not cured, but he is better.

This post has been percolating for a while, but I’m finally going to post it in the hopes that it will help someone else. I’ll be including links, so you can read and evaluate for yourself. Remember, use your critical thinking skills and to note the source! Is it an independent study, a nutritional supplement trying to sell vitamins, a pharmaceutical website hoping you don’t take vitamins? Some of the studies are very clinical and quite dry reading… take them in small doses!

My son was diagnosed with early-onset bipolar disorder (used to be called Manic Depression). He was on a prescription antipsychotic for 6 months. Now, his illness is managed solely by nutrition and supplements. Here’s the story.

He has been off medication since November, 2006.

(Bipolar disorder – wikipedia)

(Bipolar disorder in children)

(Nutrition and biplar disorder)

I knew something was different about Mr R, but I didn’t know what.  I can recall asking advice at my husband’s bible study once and the ladies did a very charismatic prayer intervention, and Mr R was only two years old at that point.

I am the second oldest of eight children, the youngest of whom was born when I was in high school. I worked my way through high school babysitting, and taking nanny jobs in the summer. The church I attended was full of large families. My dear son acted like no child I’ve ever seen. Except maybe Linda Blair, when he was really mad. It was not that he was high spirited (he is), strong willed (he is), very creative (yep), with poor impulse control (pre-pubescent boy, what do you expect?). It was way more than that. It was not something that could be cured by a good thrashing, more discipline, or relaxing the rules. It was not a rebellion against authority, or a passing bad attitude. My other children were completely different, and normal parenting things worked with them. Not dear son.

At age 4, I decided there was NO WAY the kid would make it in a public school. There was also no way we could afford to put him in a private school. So I attempted to homeschool him. We started with “This is A. It says /a/.”

When he was 5, we removed all of the furniture and the light fixture from his room for safety reasons.

When he was 6, we removed the bed as well. He would sleep underneath it because he liked the closed in spaces and was terrified of his closet.   And the rages.  These were not tantrums, but total and complete meltdowns of anything rational in his brain.  Property was damaged, sometimes people were, and always hearts were.  Often, he would not remember raging.  He blocked them out.

Our son would lose his mind over… anything.  Maybe he didn’t get his way.  Maybe there was a thunderstorm.  Maybe his routine was disrupted, or maybe he was bored with the same old same old.  And when he lost it, he was gone.  Thrashing, kicking, screaming, gouging.  Once I had taken him grocery shopping, hoping to make it a special time for us.  I had to leave in the middle of the store, literally drag him to the car, and stop several times on the way home as he kept taking off his seatbelt and throwing things at me – his shoes, books, anything he could reach.

Other times he was just grumpy, and it was better to not even talk to him.  Those days I just let him watch as much Discovery Channel as he wanted.  He adored animals, loved Steve Irwin, and even at the age of 2 and 3 could name animals and dinosaurs with specificity (even though he couldn’t remember to go to the bathroom or what his name looked like.) He watched Nova and Scooby Doo gave him nightmares.  I had to take a very strict line with him regarding fantasy because he wasn’t learning to tell the difference from reality.  I felt backed up by Montessori principles and I think maybe I was too Luddite in that regard with the other children.

He still didn’t get that A made the /a/ sound, after two intense years of coloring pages and collages and flashcards and letter theme days and “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons”.

This was a big lesson God taught me. I learned to read when I was 4, and thought that children who couldn’t read by kindergarten had lazy moms. How I could ever have been that judgemental, I’ll never know. But I was a snob in that department.

By the time he was 7, life was so difficult on so many levels with him that I finally sought professional treatment.  In this case, it was for an eating disorder – his eating disorder. He would eat everything in the house (raw spaghetti noodles, too). Then, he would say he was so fat he wanted to die. A 7 year old boy?  Are you kidding me?

He told me if he saw a car driving down the road, he would jump in front of it so it would squish him. Then he wouldn’t have to be fat. The child was small for his age, and you could count his ribs if he did a backbend. We put grates on his windows so he couldn’t climb out or break them. We had padlocks on the pantries and a bicycle chain on the fridge.

Turns out he didn’t have an eating disorder.

He has Bipolar disorder (BP). I was glad to finally get his diagnosis, since I had come to that conclusion independently based on my own research.

To Be Continued…

(If you’re here from Saturday Evening Blog post, will you take a moment to read this important post about Sears?  I am trying to get 1000 customers to tell Sears to dump the porn, so if that is important to you please leave a comment!)

Linking up!

Bipolar Kid: Our Family’s Tale part 1 originally appeared on Mama Says on July 28, 2010. If you see this posted on any other site, please let me know! Leave me a comment on www.milehimama.com

She wasn’t able to view his MRI images on the in-room computer, so she’s going to take a look at the hospital and call me if anything changes.  She doesn’t think the arachnoid cyst is causing Mr P’s headaches, though, which is good news (no surgery!).

She does think he has post concussive syndrome, which can last for months.  She gave a list of supplements and low intervention things to do (such as drink at least 2-3 liters of water per day), and then we’ll keep a headache diary and call in 6 weeks with a follow-up appointment in September.   Mr P told her that his head hurt only a 2 or 3 out of 10, but I don’t think that’s accurate.  He won’t watch TV, play on the computer, read, or even eat much when he has a headache.

After hearing about his symptoms and two trips to the ER last January, she thinks he did have a concussion even though the CT scan looked clear.

Or, it may be migraine headaches, which apparently boys get before puberty sometimes (while girls usually get them after puberty.)

Mr P’s Brain Update originally appeared on Mama Says on June 1, 2010. If you see this posted on any other site, please let me know! Leave me a comment on www.milehimama.com

A week ago Sunday, I had a migraine.  Now, this is noteworthy because I haven’t had one in years.  I used to get debilitating ones in high school, but after Miss E was born they went away.  Until this week.

Now, the headache is gone but I’m experiencing weird smells.  Monday night I kept smelling natural gas – in the living room, not in the kitchen.  No one else smelled it.  Tuesday morning it was tomato soup.  Not the homemade stuff, the canned stuff.  It was seriously driving me crazy.  And then I drove everyone else crazy begging them to tell me if they smelled anything.

Clearly, something is seriously wrong. Probably, I caught a brain tumor.  I didn’t think they were contagious, but there it is.  Thanks, Mr. P!  Inappropriate jokes about medical ailments?  We gots those.  If we don’t laugh, we’ll cry.

So Tuesday I did the marketing -marketing is so much more posh than grocery shopping, don’t you think? and as I was loading plastic bags into the back of our van, I smelled formaldehyde.  It took me right back to ninth grade biology and fetal pigs.

And do you know what my first thought was when I smelled formaldehyde?  Zombies.

I need to get out more, because I actually leaned around the tailgate to look for one.

Smells Like Fear originally appeared on Mama Says on April 27, 2010. If you see this posted on any other site, please let me know! Leave me a comment on www.milehimama.com

1.

Hope and pray that Obamacare does not stand.  I have Medicaid, another government run healthcare program, and it is a total mess.  TOTAL MESS.  Currently I’m trying to find out why some of my children qualified for coverage in April, and some did not.

Monday I was on hold for 108 minutes just to get to the operator so I could leave a voice mail.  I never heard back.  Friday, I was only on hold for 18 minutes, but I can’t leave any more voicemails because the mailbox is full.  So I left a voicemail for someone else.  I’m not holding my breath on a call back for that, either.

2.

This really stinks because I have to get the coverages worked out before I can get the neurologist stuff worked out.  The first neuro appt. I could get was in June.  (I have to drive an hour to a different town for it, too.)  I don’t want it to cancel because Medicaid is messed up, but I have to have the Medicaid coverage in case of tests (which I’m pretty sure will be needed; at least an MRI with contrast seems to be the standard diagnostic and we’ve only had one without contrast.)

3.

We are going to do a science fair!  I have no idea what we’re doing.  Thoughts, resources, ideas?  Thanks.  (grades K, 2, 3, and 4.)

4.

Interesting read on “The Consequences of Admitting the Abortion/Breast Cancer Link“.  Also, why I don’t support the Susan G. Komen Foundation.   Their ties to Planned Parenthood – and organization that aids and abets child molestors, lies to women, and skirts the law – seemingly run deep.  There are other charities and research foundations that don’t have those ties that I can support.

5.

Baby A is walking, and it didn’t take her long to learn to run.  She’s a speedy little thing!  Her favorite thing to do is to run up and down the sidewalk.  She’s also finally steady enough to toddle about the house clutching her dolly or GloWorm.  I love that stage!

She’s also an experienced climber.  She was scaling the stairs at 6 months.  Her latest favorite thing to do is climb up on the stool and watch me in the kitchen. It’s her throne.

6.

I’ve mentioned this article to more than one person in the last couple of months.  The Future of E-Readers.  Exciting stuff!  I haven’t bought an e-reader, but when it evolves into this, I will!  (And it will do all these things, and more, I’m sure.)

7.

Have you ever been stalked by something?  In my case, it’s a story.  I read pieces of it a while ago.  Then I thought of it again when my sister asked me what the creepiest thing I’d ever read was.  Later, I was reading up on what creeped Stephen King out, and there was the story again on list after list of writer’s best horror stories ever.  I pulled it up on the computer, but didn’t have time to read it so it just sat in an open window all day until I bookmarked it for that mystical time when I’ll be able to read an intense short story.  Like, 13 years from now.

At bedtime, I pulled out a new library book – American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from 1940 Until Now - and guess which story is included?

It’s haunting me.  And it IS one of the more disturbing shorts I’ve ever read, and it IS very well done.

8.

I know, it’s 7 Quick Takes.  I just wanted to add that I read uncanny/dark fantasy/horror because it’s the only genre that I find encouraging.  I mean, I might have to wash poop out of underwear, but at least my washing machine’s not possessed.

Also, I love fantasy but I cannot take one single more book where the farmboy (or variation) finds out he’s a foundling and has some mysterious destiny to save the world.  With a quirky cast of one-dimensional sidekicks, including a girl who doesn’t like skirts and/or is really good at being a boy.

For more quick takes, head over to Jen’s!

7 Quick Takes vol. 13 originally appeared on Mama Says on April 23, 2010. If you see this posted on any other site, please let me know! Leave me a comment on www.milehimama.com

I don’t know why things started slipping.  Is it because he’s eleven now, with adolescence looming on the horizon?  Is it because our personalities just don’t mesh?  Is it because I failed, he failed, we all failed?  I don’t know.

What I do know is this.  My vocation is motherhood.  Mr R’s daily lessons were interfering in a way I would have never thought possible.

I needed peace.  He needed a mother who was able to mother without letting paragraphs and reading lists getting in the way.

My husband always backed me up, and his relationship with Mr R began to suffer as well.  Could they enjoy their time together at martial arts, with the tension of punishment for undone schoolwork hanging between them?  Husband dear would come home from work and immediately have to deal with Mr R.  He never got to simply enjoy him, either, always having to discipline or have a talk or oversee consequences.

And yet, there seemed to be no consequence or punishment or reparation that had any lasting effect.

My boy, on the cusp of becoming a man but still so childish in so many ways.  My boy, who still needed his mama and daddy, even if he didn’t want to admit it?

I thought I would explain a little about how the bipolar dynamic can affect something like spelling.  Most people hear “bipolar” and their mind jumps to stereotypes, thinking of manic episodes a la Jack Nicholson in The Shining.  Heeerrre’s Johnny!

Bipolar disorder manifests differently in children.  Many children are rapid cyclers, flying from “manic” to “depression” and back again without warning, sometimes several times a day or even several times an hour.  Bipolar in children is very different from adults, and has many other issues that seem to crop up together (comorbidity).

Instead of “manic depresssive”, it’s more like “low mood” and “high mood”.  Low moods in children don’t always mirror adult depression (i.e., not eating, getting out of bed, feeling sad and hopeless).  Low moods coincide, generally, with whining, anxiety, negative self talk, irrational fears, that sort of thing.  High moods coincide with inflated self confidence, bossiness, bullying, and, in Mr R’s case, anger.  His low moods, basically, are implosions and his high moods are explosions.

Mr R also becomes “sensory defensive” during his low moods.  This means every little thing bugs him – the ceiling fan is to high, the light to bright, his pencil is too sharp, then too dull to write with.  His shoes hurt his feet and a shower just might kill him.

It’s not all negative.  Mr R’s high moods are also when he has his most vivid dreams, hatches his grand schemes, and plans his best contraptions.  His vision of the future is dreamy and bright, and he can do anything.

How does this affect schoolwork?  If he’s in a low mood, the scratch of the pencil on the paper might be too loud or too rough.  If the pencil breaks, instead of sharpening it like a typical kid, it might send him into a spiral of negativity – “The pencil broke, I pushed it too hard!  The pencil always breaks!  Stupid pencil they all suck!  I hate pencils!  {gathers all pencils he can find and flings them out the back door} {continues crying} {rips pencil out of brother’s hand to throw outside too}

If he’s in a high mood, he might declare he already knows the words.  He’ll decide that writing spelling words or completing the workbook page is for suckers, and that he doesn’t have to do it.  He also knows the words so well that no testing is necessary.  His words will be disdainful and imperious.  If I insist, he’ll have a total meltdown.  Basically, like a two year old, but he’s 11 so it’s much louder, more intense, and destructive.  Furniture will probably be toppled – maybe just a chair, maybe the table.

Normally, Mr R is pretty stable.  We had found the right combination of non-prescription medications to give him, and as I said, last year he did very well.  Obviously we need to make some adjustments, as happens from time to time.  But I also noticed that in many cases, he was faking.

He had learned that certain behaviors got him sent to his room to cool off or given punishments and consequences.  He’d rather do that than schoolwork, any day.  He started intentionally antagonizing his sisters and brothers so I would send him away to work by himself, where he could fritter away the day doodling in the margins or daydreaming or making explosions for imaginary battles all day.  He could divide and conquer by dividing my time between him (sent off to be alone), the other students (who need a teacher and are not autonomous) and the little ones (who would flock to their eldest brother for playtime as soon as my back was turned.)

He mastered dysfunctional procrastination.  Now there was no peace, and no advancement in school for him.  It was the worst of both worlds.

~ to be continued ~

When Homeschooling Isn’t Working, part 2 originally appeared on Mama Says on March 15, 2010. If you see this posted on any other site, please let me know! Leave me a comment on www.milehimama.com

Today I take Mr X to the school for his speech evaluation.  He talks in full sentences all the time, but is so terribly hard to understand.  They have to evaluate him before they can tell us what services he’ll qualify for.  Next month is the last one for in-home ECI.

2.

Still waiting on the referral for Mr P.  He’s got to see a neurologist, probably get a new MRI with contrast this time, then get yet another referral for a neurosurgeon.  At the rate things are going – it’ll be summertime.  Unfortunately, his quality of life is degrading, so to speak.  Daily headaches, blurred vision and dizziness (only occasionally, thankfully), and definite personality changes (though, that could just be crankiness from having a headache all the time.)

3.

Positive news, Baby A’s tests were all normal. Though I did have to get her blood taken twice because the first one showed elevated potassium (7.3); it turns out the sample was damaged.  Her potassium is just a teensy bit high but everything else is great.

4.

This girl already stands alone.  She’ll be walking before she’s 9 months old, I’m sure of it.

5.

She is driving me nuts with the biting.  She was biting “for fun” but I cured her of that.  However, when she breastfeeds and gets drowsy, the sleepier she gets the more she clamps down.  It’s not uncommon for her to be asleep, and for me to have teeth marks where noone should ever, ever have teeth marks.  But if I unlatch her, she wakes up, tries to nurse, gets drowsy, clamps down… lather, rinse, repeat.

6.

Went to another furniture store with all the kids.  This saleslady was great, and wasn’t thrown off by my comments, such as:

“Looks like a row of molars”

“No, uggh.  They look like bear paws cradling you before eating their dinner.”

and

“Those throw pillows look like dumpy little pinto beans.”

Sorry, I have strong opinions about furniture design, apparently.  And hold my tongue?  I know not how to do such a thing.

7.

I simply must share this website with you: The Journey. Katie moved to Uganda, and now is mothering 14 orphaned children with grace and humility.  Her story is inspiring and her posts bring tears to my eyes.  You’ll notice her button on my sidebar.

7 Quick Takes vol. 8 originally appeared on Mama Says on February 25, 2010. If you see this posted on any other site, please let me know! Leave me a comment on www.milehimama.com

My children qualified for Medicaid along with the foodstamps.  This is good, because my husband’s current employer does not offer insurance of any kind.

So far it has been a debacle.

First, we had issues because of typos.  Our caseworker, the one with a bad attitude who “didn’t have time” to actually talk to us, entered in 08 for the birth year instead of the birth month.  He was born in ’02 and it would be a major problem if I showed  up at the doctor’s with a 7 year old instead of a 2 year old.  Three different people have told me that they fixed it.  It wasn’t actually corrected until our third month (6 months after we applied.)

They left Mr. P off altogether.  Oh, they assigned him a number, but they didn’t bother to certify him.  This was a major problem because he’s the one with brain cysts who needs an MRI.  Finally, as of Feb.1, he is certified and can go to the doctor.

If we can find one.  In Texas, when you qualify for Medicaid you actually have to sign up for an HMO.  You have a choice of four different plans.  A guy called me to give me instructions.  He has a twenty minute speech and got irritated when I asked questions.

Ok.  So I have to sign up for an HMO and pick a name out of the book to be our Primary Care Physician.  I don’t like just picking a name, but I found one that seemed perfect for our family.  She had special training in pediatric nephrology, and my two youngest have high blood pressure and are followed by a nephrologist at the UT Medical Center.  She was close.  A mom in my homeschooling group recommended her.  English was her first language.  Perfect!

So I filled out my paperwork, called it in, and selected our doctor.

Then Mr P hurt his head.  Suddenly we needed to see the doctor quickly (well, it turns out, not too quickly.  Medicaid didn’t authorize the MRI for two weeks, even though it was ordered by an emergency room physician.)  Call up the doctor.  Our Primary Care.  The one who is our gateway for any and all treatment; Medicaid won’t pay for anything she doesn’t sign off on.

This doctor is not accepting new Medicaid patients.  Oh, they’ll take new patients, just not Medicaid.  Even though she was listed in the directory.  Even though her office does take Medicaid as payment.  Just so long as you are not new.

Now I’m in a pickle.  Everything has to be okayed by this woman who won’t see us.  I call.  There’s a holiday.  A glitch in the paperwork.  Days and more phone calls pass.  Finally a woman tells me that I can’t change my PCP until I get my official card, which won’t even be sent for processing until Feb. 1.  They hold all new accounts until the first of the month then send them as a batch.

Meanwhile, I manage to find a doctor who will take new Medicaid patients.  I make an appointment, which I promptly cancel since Medicaid hadn’t approved the MRI at that point.  A week later I make another appointment, after our MRI gets the green light.  Now new doctor can’t see us unless they are listed as our PCP which I can’t change right now.

Also, I find out that this new doctor is unable to check my little one’s blood pressure – one of the main reasons I take them to the doctor in the first place.  But I have no choice.  There aren’t many doctors taking new patients.

The icing on the cake?  Today I get an insurance card for Baby A (only her, I don’t know what happened to the other 7 children’s.)  It is for a completely different Medicaid HMO (that I did not select) and some random doctor listed as her PCP- again, someone I didn’t pick.  I checked online.  This doctor is not going to work.  She has a very low rating at HealthGrades (1 star for “would recommend to others).  Another ranking site says they have long waits and the office is dirty.  She graduated from an Indian medical school 40 years ago.  (Does it make me racist to say I prefer my physicians to be trained at modern facilities in America? Or at least somewhere that is not a third world country?)

I suppose it’s true that beggars can’t be choosers.  But we already, in general, stay out of the doctor’s office unless someone needs to be seen (we always seem to get sick during well child checkups).  I can’t imagine how detrimental waiting for hours in a dirty clinic would be.

I am a medical snob.  And I’m okay with that.

I guess we’ll just consider Medicaid as catastrophic insurance for broken legs or something.  I’ll have to work something out about Mr. P’s MRI though.  I just need a doctor who can receive the results and pass them on to me.  Nothing major.

On the other hand, they did approve the MRI.  So that’s a plus.

We have paid thousands of dollars into this system- and so have you.  It’s shocking to see what a shoddy product we are getting.  (That amount taken out of your check, for OASDI – that’s SS and Medicaid.  Medicaid is part of the Social Security Act. If you live in a no-income tax state, the remainder/state portion most likely comes from property taxes or sales tax.)

Texas Medicaid originally appeared on Mama Says on February 4, 2010. If you see this posted on any other site, please let me know! Leave me a comment on www.milehimama.com

I’ve been reading a lot of foodie books (Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver) and they both emphasize eating locally and eating in season.  I’ve virtuosly passed up on cherries from Chile and thought twice about buying corn on the cob in January (really, what’s the point of that?)  But I really experienced what they are talking about, that produce shipped halfway across the world doesn’t taste as good or have as many nutrients.

2.

I needed a few quick things from WalMart, and after I cruised their produce aisle, just for kicks.  Their produce is terrible there, and I rarely buy it but I wanted to see what they had and Mr X needed some bananas (when I say needed I do mean NEED. He’s part monkey.)  They had pint boxes of fresh blueberries for just $3!

I picked it up to smell them.  I almost always smell my fruits and veggies, especially if it’s in a bag or package, to sniff out anything musty or rotten.  Plus, the smell of fresh berries is wonderful.  Strawberries in May are intoxicatingly sweet, one of teh highlights of shopping in the early summer.  Anyway, the blueberries didn’t smell bad.  They didn’t smell like anything.  Certainly not blueberryish.

Yeah, I passed.  If they don’t smell good, what are the chances they’ll taste good?  And as I put them back on the shelf I noticed that these, too, were from Chile.

3.

More on this real food health kick.  When our food stamps first came in, I went on a stocking up spree.  I took a kid with me because I knew this shopping trip would be a two-carter.

I purchased raw, organic agave nectar because I often saw it used by a blogger who was a Nourishing Traditions princess.  I hadn’t ordered my copy, though I had read it from the library several months before and followed many “nourishing” blogs.  Anyway, into the cart it went!

Turns out it’s not raw nectar and is about the same as high fructose corn syrup.  I’ve never opened the bottle, but I can’t return it because *I* didn’t pay for it.  So on the shelf it sits while I ponder what to do with it.  I’ll probably use it up here and there.

4.

We got Star Trek in from Netflix. I do not understand why, if in the future they have universal translators, Chekov has a thick Russian accent. Wouldn’t he just speak in Russian and have it translated to Standard?

5.

My daughter got some Charlotte’s Web readers from the library.  “Based on the new movie” was written on the cover.  Um, no.  Aren’t they based off the book?  The same one the movie was based off?  Related: I’m making Mr P read The Trumpet of the Swan for class.  He claims it’s stupid and boring and he’s already seen the movie but I’ve caught him reading ahead.

6.

I have an bloggy friend who has been deployed to Afghanistan. She gave me her address – but I am a terrible letter writer. Do any of you write to soldiers that you’ve never met? What do you say? Why do I have stage fright? How do you even mail a letter overseas? I also have a little something I need to send to a friend in the UK, and a card. I have no idea how to mail anything more complicated than the electric bill. Why am I such a postal loser?

7.

I dropped a whole quart of half and half on the floor this morning. It was Promised Land, so it comes in glass jars which shattered. Just wanted to report that my mostest favorite mop ever is still going strong, 3 1/2 years later.

For more Quick Takes, check out Jen at Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes vol. 4 originally appeared on Mama Says on January 29, 2010. If you see this posted on any other site, please let me know! Leave me a comment on www.milehimama.com