I wanted to update you all as to how Ms. Bella is doing.  If you recall,  that we had a bit of an emergency this morning when she ripped one of her toe nails partly off. It was all twisted and mangled.  The boys were all freaked out because she was bleeding everywhere. We got her into the vet and they had to cut the nail off,  well past the nail bed. It was quite painful for her but they didn't have to muzzle her.  The vet said that most dogs would have to be muzzled but that Bella did really well and it wasn't necessary. This was quite a scare, especially for the boys.  Blood is a scary thing to see when your a kid.  She should be good…

We met with Dr. Reynolds today and have a tentative I place to manage his medications.  For the next 7 days,  Gavin will have blood work done every other day. We need to get more data points,  if that makes sense.  We did learn that Lithium is not metabolized in the liver.  Instead it has more to do with the kidneys as it's a salt. Basically,  we aren't sure what the impact of an autonomic disorder would be.  It doesn't make sense that Gavin's numbers would be higher because Gavin is on medication to increase water retention,  in order to bolster his blood pressure. This would dilute the lithium and cause the numbers to be lower, if anything. This is really unusual and I just don't know what to do.…

We have an emergency on our hands. Somehow,  Bella ripped her toenail almost completely off.   It's still connected and so she has to go to the vet this afternoon, 45 minutes prior to Dr.  Reynolds.  They quoted us about $100,  worst case scenario. They said the nail will likely have to be removed and that just sounds like torture. I can only assume that I've done something to bring this on my family.  It's like we have this black cloud following overhead and when we are at our weakest,  it unleashes on us.  Statically,  nothing else makes sense. I mean honestly, what are the odds of all this happening in the first place,  let alone to the same family? The boys are all in a panic about this because they…

This is not going to be fun. Having everyone in our room at night is a bit overwhelming. Unfortunately, with Gavin now home, we don't really have a choice. I slept like crap and I don't think Lizze slept at all. The boys however, slept well and that's good news.  :-) We have to get the alarms and locks this afternoon as Gavin was wandering around last night. New rules are in place but it's absolutely exhausting to enforce them. For example, for Gavin to be upstairs while his brothers are, it requires either Lizze or myself to be present. The same goes for anywhere else in the house. There has to be constant supervision and I can't even begin to explain how difficult that is.  We see Dr. Reynolds this afternoon…

This is the first night that Gavin's been home and we are having to implement new safety precautions.  The big one for tonight is moving Elliott into our bedroom and locking ourselves in when we go to sleep. I'm not a huge fan of this but it's a necessary precaution,  especially in light of the issues we are already having since he's been home. At some point in the afternoon,  probably after Dr.  Reynolds, we have to visit the Home Depot for more security items.  Right now,  I think we're focused alarming Gavin's door and locking up anything that could be used as a weapon.  Those are the immediate concerns. Our attention is divided between the medical side and mental health side of Gavin.  This makes things more difficult because,…

We have spoken with almost all of the doctors today. Gavin's autonomic specialist at the Cleveland Clinic basically said that we have to get into the mitochondrial doctor ASAP.  They said that we can't message around with this at all. Dr.  Reynolds office called back this afternoon and moved us up yet again.  Now we will be seen at 3pm instead of 7pm. From what we understand,  the very least that we are looking at is blood work,  twice a week. I don't think I have to explain just how unpleasant that will be,  for all involved. We toyed around with actually withholding his meds tonight but decided to keep the status quo, as it's best to let the professionals handle this.  Not to mention,  the last thing in the…

It didn't take long.  The honeymoon phase, if you even want to call it that is over.  We are already having problems.  The honeymoon phase is the period of time that goes by before things return to normal. We were at Dr.  Patti's office tonight with all 3 boys and it was time to put the toys away. Gavin and Emmett were putting the play food away when Emmett decided to pretend to eat the food before placing it back on the floor.  Gavin would pick it up and Emmett would pretend to eat it,  and put it back on the floor. Instead of walking away or coming to get us,  Gavin just began screaming at Emmett,  right into his face.  I was there in 5 seconds and grabbed Gavin…

I'm just a tad bit frustrated at the moment.  The nurse that I spoke with last night and this morning did not provide accurate information.  We were concerned yesterday because of the day to day,  extreme fluctuations of Gavin's lithium levels. This morning she reported to me that Gavin's levels were so high because he had just taken his meds prior to the blood draw. That turns out not to be the case. Gavin was admitted Friday night and received his medications at 11pm that night.  They drew his blood around 7:30-8:00 am the following morning.  At that point,  Gavin's levels should have been low because he was due for another dose.  They call that being in a trough. Basically,  Gavin's levels drop as time goes on.  This is why…