Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Both of my sons are home

This has been a long and crazy month, but both boys are home where they belong. Aidan discharged from the hospital in time to join a day treatment center's summer program. He loves the outings and has even made some friends, but getting up at 6am in the summer does seem a bit unfair. I mean, he is still a 13 year old boy who enjoys lazing around in his tighty whities.

Korbin spent a little longer inpatient so he missed the cutoff for camp. Not to worry. He has a fort built in the living room, knows every place in town where we can get an ice cream cone for $1, and has perfected the art of creating elaborate war scenes with tiny plastic army men. The day treatment center has a school program for kids, like mine, who just can't function in a typical school setting. Korbin's paperwork is already done so he can join Aidan on August 19Th at 8am.... not that I'm counting.

After spending 4 months in the psych hospital for kids, the boys had a few medical issues to deal with. Aidan just had his GI scopes and Korbin had the pleasure of having dental rehab while completely knocked out. We're spending 2 hours 3 days a week getting physical, occupational, and speech therapies. Korbin has his special shoe inserts and fancy new shoes to help relieve the curving inward of his feet. Medications are dispensed 4 times a day and we work on life skills at night. I'm deeply impressed with how much the boys have changed and matured during their inpatient time. They are not only more psychiatricly stable, but they've gained social and emotional skills that I just haven't been able to teach at home.

We still have 3 weeks left in this summer break before Korbin makes his second attempt at 4Th grade and Aidan his second try in the 8Th. This past month has been a huge adjustment for us all, but through all this craziness we're finding a new rhythm. It's a fresh start and new life. No more aggression, hallucinations, delusions, or any of those horrible psychotic behaviors. I realize that with schizo affective disorder I can't expect the peace to be a constant. This last wild month has reminded me to enjoy the moments of calm we have so we can handle the crazy when it does come.