Partial Day Hospitalization

Friday we finally had an appointment with the partial day hospitalization program. I'd been trying to get hold of them all week. It was a 3 hour interview with Kitty there the whole time. We discovered that evening that she hadn't taken her morning meds. Can you say hyper? Because she was referred by the hospital apparently it was a given that she'd get in (wish they'd told me that at the beginning of the week).



She started the program on Monday. There are 4 hours of school and she is in therapy for several hours (group, individual and family). Still no PE, but they have a ropes course and a gym they can play in. In the Summer they have a pool, assuming she's still there in the Summer of course. We disenrolled her from public school on Monday.

It is very far away, but they have a van that picks up the kids in the North. Big problem?! We have to have her at the van stop (20-30 minutes away) at 7am. Before she didn't have to be at school until 8:30am, and it was a 5 minute drive.

Kitty seems to be doing OK with going to bed a little earlier and getting up earlier, but no one else in the house is! Hubby is taking her to the van so he's having to get up almost an hour earlier then usual. I'm having to get up about an hour earlier and be dressed and ready to go so I can get Bob to school. The big problem is that Kitty is LOUD! She sings, talks loudly, stomps around, slams cabinet doors... She's not even aware she's doing it and doesn't seem able to stop, but no one in the house can sleep through it. The rest of the school year is going to be loooong.

Kitty seems to have many opinions about her new school. She told Bob and Grandma that it was nice, and she liked her teachers and made some friends.

In a 45 minute meltdown (luckily no physical aggression) she told Hubby and I that she hated the new school and was scared of the children (as wells as no one in the family cares about her, she's a bad person, and it's not her fault - because she has "issues" that excuse her behavior). I talked to a nurse during the day, when I'd discovered Kitty had left her lunch in our car, and she said Kitty seemed scared and upset. Usually Kitty is all smiles and super friendly to new people so this was surprising. Kitty got in trouble for talking during a quiet time, "teasing" a boy with physical threats, and not fully participating in therapy.

One thing I like about the new school is not only do they have point sheets at school, but they have them for the time at home too. With a large space for comments. Hopefully this will lead to good communication.

I've spent the last 2 days updating Kitty's timeline. Oh my goodness! It ended up being 23 pages single spaced 11 point type! It does have just about everything we know about her in it though. Cast of characters: biofamily, therapists, adoptive family, schools... and a brief description of everything we know about Kitty; moves (that took up a whole page right there), hospitalizations, meltdowns, reasons for meltdowns, consequences... I included a lot of Bear's information because Kitty was usually at the very least a witness to his issues.

I even included a description of a pre-meltdown conversation.