Ian is Ian, challenging, amazing, exhausting, enlivening, and all that before breakfast. He is 5’10”, 150 pounds of pure muscle. His functioning is about the same, non-verbal but certainly not non-vocal. He has developed a cry that is very reminiscent of a pterodactyl. He is very good at it and likes to practice it---often. He went through a very rough patch last fall and we had to get crisis services (he was just out of control, gouging huge sores in his face, pulling out large patches of hair, hitting, pulling our hair, kicking, I was using Judo holds I had learned when I was six!). Luckily we had a secret weapon—drugs. First, we gave him larger and larger doses of Xanax, which paradoxically (a key concept with drugs and Ian) just seemed to make him angry, not relaxed. But, all was not lost, it did do something, it lowered his seizure threshold, and he had a grand mal seizure! That will get your attention. But we were undaunted (Ian’s psychiatrist is the Chief of Psychiatry and a world renowned expert on autism). Next, we used Risperdal, an antipsychotic, guaranteed to calm him down, after all this class of drugs is also called the major tranquilizers. By the second day on half the minimum dose he was basically having a continuous tantrum, completely out of control, i.e., not tranquil. This was somewhat less than the reaction we had hoped for. Luckily we were undaunted. We next tried another antipsychotic, but we were very clever this time. We used 1/8th the minimum dose so we could gradually titrate the dose without side effects—brilliant no? Within two hours of the first dose he was so out of control Katie and I had to manhandle him to wrap him up tightly in a large blanket and hold on for dear life. After two incredibly entertaining hours, and several bruises all around, he fell asleep and had stopped frothing. We were daunted. Luckily I knew some psychologists and with good behavioral measures, he is now only difficult, and no longer impossible. Whew!
No comments:
Post a Comment