This one has to be quick -- there are children and husbands to wake and shepherd out the door (and coffee to be mainlined).
Benjy's sphere of comfort and functionality is contracting. The Joy School is not working. Well, it is in the sense that it's a super-therapeutic school, and if he sleeps all day there they'll deal with it.And he knows it's the best possible school for him (so do we). But his tolerance for just about everything there is waning. He won't eat on the premises (eating at school -- and at home -- has been an intermittent problem for him). The other kids annoy the hell out of him, because they are possibly even more impaired in a social and life-skills sense than he. Work of any sort causes him unbearable stress. So he sleeps.
And his participation in family life has been waning as well. He cannot really bear to eat much at home, certainly not to eat with his family. Requests to help with chores make him physically flinch. He'll do it, in a half-assed sort of way, and then rush back to the safety of his couch and his computer. As if he's been shocked or something.
His new neurologist, the Tourette's specialist, wants us to get him into a sleep study. While she's not ruling out heightened depression, she wonders if he might have sleep apnea. Insufficient sleep can cause depression, anxiety, and worsened tics. So that is one of two calls I need to make today: the call to arrange a sleep study and a call to his psychiatrist, to talk about med adjustment.
Readers, it's autumn. The days are shorter and darker. This is always the time of year he goes down. Just about a year ago now he entered Franciscan's psychiatric unit, for his second hospitalization.
I hope we're not heading for number three. On that note, I will perform my human alarm clock duties. Have a good morning!
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