Discovery Part 3
A little background information and some clarification.
Pardon me if my writing seems choppy in recounting the past 7 years. But I'm going to be writing in snapshots. I am having a hard time recalling the timeline on some things, so I may get the order of events all out of sort. Consider my "Discovery" series a rough draft, if you will.
I wanted to drop in here at this point and briefly mention the other trials in the background at this time. The effects on our other 3 sons was far reaching. I'm not going to write about their own struggles for the sake of privacy. And I'm also not saying that their own struggles were directly due to what we were dealing with with S. We are the parents of fours sons and as you can imagine, time and energy that should have been due them were not. For obvious reasons.
Next I want to note that during this time, my husband lost his job not once, not twice, but three times. The second job loss came at the height of our country's economic troubles when his company went out of business. Due to this, we also had to let our home go to foreclosure since we had just made the purchase before the collapse of the market. We had to use a good portion of the sale of our first home towards our son's placement at the ranch in Montana and another good portion sustained us through the first job loss. There was no possible way that I could work, we had to be on deck at all times. As my husband said to me, "we made a mistake with buying the house, we have to let it go"...God gave me the grace to accept it and realize that in light of everything else...it was just a house after all.
So, o.k., with that out of the way...on with the story...(story resumes from here)
As we left our son at the hospital in tears, I remember God meeting me again with this thought as we walked through the parking lot to our car...it's only one week, just one week out of his entire life and eternity...
At the end of that week my husband and I went (ran) to pick up our son from the hospital. We were brought into a small conference room with a psychiatrist and case worker. We went over some paperwork and were given discharge papers. I thought, that's it? We inquired more, What did they observe? Did they have a diagnosis?
"We think he may be bipolar. Follow up with a counselor." we were told.
O.K., thanks?
Up until this point, my husband and I had not considered medication. We were concerned about his relationship with God first and foremost and we did not think it was best to have a premature diagnosis. Obviously we were naive, maybe in denial, whatever you'd like to think, but clearly we were on an uncharted journey with only God Himself to guide us. These were the best decisions we could make at the time and I do not regret them at all. In fact, in providence, the delay gave way for our son to accept Christ as his Savior. It was not that my husband and I had some great wisdom or insight on this, it was simply God's faithfulness and sovereign grace (Again, this is our son's story...everyone's story is just as unique as the individual themselves...God's power is not limited by use of medications or delay of medications and diagnosis).
He began a course of medication in the hospital and at home for the very first time. But it was short lived. His symptoms quickly returned and the spiraling tornado resumed. I counted down the days until his long awaited appointment with the adolescent psychiatrist that our family doctor recommended. My husband and I tried to concoct a plan of how we would get him into the car to even take him to the doctor without him opening the door on the freeway and jumping out! Much less getting him to walk into the office.
The inevitable day arrived for the appointment. Our tentative plan was in place. I call the psychiatrist's office to verify and get directions. The receptionist sweetly tells me, "Dear, your appointment was yesterday. You missed it."
My heart sinks. I look on my calendar that I checked compulsively. She is right! How did I not see that?!?
We make another appointment...months away...
to be continued...
Pardon me if my writing seems choppy in recounting the past 7 years. But I'm going to be writing in snapshots. I am having a hard time recalling the timeline on some things, so I may get the order of events all out of sort. Consider my "Discovery" series a rough draft, if you will.
I wanted to drop in here at this point and briefly mention the other trials in the background at this time. The effects on our other 3 sons was far reaching. I'm not going to write about their own struggles for the sake of privacy. And I'm also not saying that their own struggles were directly due to what we were dealing with with S. We are the parents of fours sons and as you can imagine, time and energy that should have been due them were not. For obvious reasons.
Next I want to note that during this time, my husband lost his job not once, not twice, but three times. The second job loss came at the height of our country's economic troubles when his company went out of business. Due to this, we also had to let our home go to foreclosure since we had just made the purchase before the collapse of the market. We had to use a good portion of the sale of our first home towards our son's placement at the ranch in Montana and another good portion sustained us through the first job loss. There was no possible way that I could work, we had to be on deck at all times. As my husband said to me, "we made a mistake with buying the house, we have to let it go"...God gave me the grace to accept it and realize that in light of everything else...it was just a house after all.
So, o.k., with that out of the way...on with the story...(story resumes from here)
As we left our son at the hospital in tears, I remember God meeting me again with this thought as we walked through the parking lot to our car...it's only one week, just one week out of his entire life and eternity...
At the end of that week my husband and I went (ran) to pick up our son from the hospital. We were brought into a small conference room with a psychiatrist and case worker. We went over some paperwork and were given discharge papers. I thought, that's it? We inquired more, What did they observe? Did they have a diagnosis?
"We think he may be bipolar. Follow up with a counselor." we were told.
O.K., thanks?
Up until this point, my husband and I had not considered medication. We were concerned about his relationship with God first and foremost and we did not think it was best to have a premature diagnosis. Obviously we were naive, maybe in denial, whatever you'd like to think, but clearly we were on an uncharted journey with only God Himself to guide us. These were the best decisions we could make at the time and I do not regret them at all. In fact, in providence, the delay gave way for our son to accept Christ as his Savior. It was not that my husband and I had some great wisdom or insight on this, it was simply God's faithfulness and sovereign grace (Again, this is our son's story...everyone's story is just as unique as the individual themselves...God's power is not limited by use of medications or delay of medications and diagnosis).
He began a course of medication in the hospital and at home for the very first time. But it was short lived. His symptoms quickly returned and the spiraling tornado resumed. I counted down the days until his long awaited appointment with the adolescent psychiatrist that our family doctor recommended. My husband and I tried to concoct a plan of how we would get him into the car to even take him to the doctor without him opening the door on the freeway and jumping out! Much less getting him to walk into the office.
The inevitable day arrived for the appointment. Our tentative plan was in place. I call the psychiatrist's office to verify and get directions. The receptionist sweetly tells me, "Dear, your appointment was yesterday. You missed it."
My heart sinks. I look on my calendar that I checked compulsively. She is right! How did I not see that?!?
We make another appointment...months away...
to be continued...
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