I have pointed out before - things move fast when dealing with Ameri.
The living arrangement with the boy friend did not work out. His schedule is 12 hours on/12hours off. Then there is the travel time and he has to depend on a ride from co-workers. Ameri was left with too much time on her hands and she had stopped taking her medication. She went into melt down. Mom had to make the long trip to pick her up. She took her to the local hospital. They had no psychiatric facilities. She was sent on to another facility an hour further away from home. Mom had to leave Ameri at that facility and she drove home. Two days later she was being precipitously released and Mom had to make the long trip back and pick her up. They returned to the boy friend's apartment, picked up Ameri's belongings and went to an appointment to see a family physician in another rural town. This particular doctor keeps his practice away from the metropolitan centers. He works with psychologists and therapists who have offices in those areas. Ameri has a long assessment visit with him. He had already read her history back in September when we had first hoped that she would come home and be treated by him. She felt an immediate rapport with him. I had the same response when I first met him.
The doctor found nothing that we had not already seen in Ameri. Her diagnosis is quite compatible with disorders originating from poor prenatal and neonatal care. He commented that the well documented poor attention and abuse as an infant and toddler have left their telling mark. The serial attachment and abandonment events that she experienced until age 7 have had a profound effect on her ability bond and trust to this day. Ameri seems quite happy to put herself into the care of strangers rather than us. She sees Mom and myself more as siblings rather than parents.
That was a long overnight trip for Mom to pick Ameri up and take her to the doctor. Mom was prepared to stay in that rural town with Ameri so that she could begin a medication regimen with the doctor and have daily visits with him. Ameri had other ideas. She wanted to come back to our home turf and commit herself to a hospital that she trusted. That was done and she was admitted ten hours later. It was well after
After a tumultuous trip from across the state, Ameri reportedly went into a manic outbreak and was eventually sedated shortly after admission. We saw her again the evening of the same day that she was admitted. She had finally slept and was in the state of a cranky two year old. She had been a pain off and on all day to staff. That not withstanding, we were received cordially by the floor staff. We had a short visit and then a clinging tearful separation. Shortly after we got home, there was a call from the patient care supervisor on the shift telling us that Ameri had to be sedated heavily again. She was still able to cut herself with some jewelry that had not been taken from her at admission. She was then put into restraints and put into the quiet room. We acknowledged that message by sending a fax to the psych floor repeating what we had been told. That was Thursday March, 30. We had calls from both Ameri and hospital staff on Friday. Ameri had another episode and had to be sedated again. We visited again on Friday evening. The staff was quite distant with us. Ameri was chipper and freshly showered.
It has always been such.
