Med Wash and Due Process

Not sure what this hospital's definition of "med wash" is, but I'm confused.

First, they kept her on Tril*ptal (mild mood stabilizer with few side effects). Fine with me. She's been on this med for over 5 years, and it seems to be a good one.

Then they said they want to put her on Ser*quel XR right away, to help with sleep. This confuses me, because she's been on Ser*quel before and it caused her to gain a lot of weight (70lbs in 6 months). Plus, I'm confused about the point of a med wash where you add new meds before the other med are even out of her system... but OK.

So today they call me and say they want to start her to Wellb*trin (an anti-depressant) to replace the Depak*te (a mood stabilizer). I'm OK with getting off Depak*te, we were in the process of switching her to Lamict*l anyway, but I don't get why they're switching from a mood stabilizer to an anti-depressant. So I argued discussed it with them. Apparently one reason they want her on Wellb*trin is to help with weight loss. I told them I thought she'd been on it before (but it could have just been Bear and I). I really want her on Lamict*l.

I asked if they'd reviewed her records, so we weren't recreating the wheel or switching her to the new doctor's favorite med cocktail for no apparent reason (has happened before). Of course they hadn't.

Why did I bother to sign consent forms everywhere?

I declined to give permission for the switch until they reviewed her records. Which they did, and I guess I'll find out the results tomorrow at family therapy.

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Finally heard back from the Advocate and Struggling to Stand was right, it doesn't matter that Kitty is not in the school district right now. The good news is I don't have to worry about what the school is going to torture her with while we wait for the due process hearing or mediation or whatever.

I did get the behavior staff notes for the last few weeks. It's hard for me to read because it's all about what I did wrong ("Mom brought her in late. Mom didn't call to say she was going to be late or wasn't coming. Mom didn't sign her in right. Mom took her home...") or only talking about things that imply Kitty's issues are minor or all at home ("Kitty was upset about something and wanted to talk - no detail on days when I'm pretty sure Kitty was upset about something that happened at school. Kitty said sometimes she tells Mom she feels like hurting herself so she can get away from the family and go to the hospital. Kitty wanted to call home, but I told her she was fine.")