The Week In Review

Tuesday was quite a long day.We had four appointments -Cognitive Therapy in Somersworth,then over to Manchester for an appt with Rick's med Dr,then I had a brief meeting with Lisa,the head of the TBI program,then it was a TBI appt for Rick.

Again this week,Rick has homework for his Cognitive Therapy program. The homework is the same as last week,but added is the trauma statement Rick has to write.The trauma statement is usually the most difficult part of the course because it brings up emotions that tend to stay buried.By bringing these things up,the goal is to then discuss the emotions and and deal with them,thereby getting more of a handle on the PTSD.

Rick has been weaning off the Seroquil,and this week his med Dr wants him to get down to 25 mg a night (bear in mind he takes over 1,000 mg of Depakote a day now instead of Seroquil). He is still adjusting to the Depakote,as it doesn't dull him like the Seroquil did.However, part of the reason behind getting off the Seroquil was the fact that it was raising his blood sugar,and diabetes runs in his family (plus the dulling effect).This has lead to a bit of heightening of the PTSD symptoms,but we expected that.

My appt was with Lisa.Lisa used to be Rick's PTSD counselor,until she took over the TBI dept. The VA has a new telephone support group for spouses of soldiers who have PTSD and/or TBI. We hook up twice a month for an hour each time. Lisa wanted to touch base with all members before our first meeting to go over the guidelines.We have a handbook and some homework. It should be interesting,and I hope that I can help some of the ladies who are fairly new to all this. Apparently I am the old pro of the group :)

Rick's TBI appt went well,but we did learn that Rick's Dr is leaving. The VA wants a full time Dr for that position,which I can understand.

Today we have speech therapy. The VA ordered Rick a basic IPOD to help keep track of his meds,daily schedules,etc. It has up to 24 alarms on it,so it will help him organize his day. It will go off to remind him of meds,or to start or stop projects. We have tried writing lists,but that doesn't always work.We are hopeful that this will work out better.

The weather this week has not been very cooperative. It has been foggy,drizzly and rainy. As soon as things dry up,it gets wet again. Sigh. This weekend is suppose to be very nice,so our outdoor work can commence yet again.i at least got my seedlings out to harden off. Next Tuesday our carpenter Rick (not my hubby!) will be coming over to start fixing our sink cabinet,so the kitchen remodel will begin yet again.

Hope all is well in your neck of the planet!