Rick and I were so relieved to know Josiah was going to be transferred to a different hospital. We were incredibly thankful our insurance company came through at the very last minute when it truly felt all hope was gone. We were thrilled Josiah was going to be getting the help he needed.

The day after Josiah’s admission, we met with his new psychiatrist and felt as if finally, someone understood. We only spoke to him for 20-25 minutes. Yet, in all of Josiah’s 13 years, I don’t think anyone has had a handle on him quite like this man.  For the very first time it seemed Rick and I didn’t need to be driving things.  This guy knew his stuff.  He was confident.  He was experienced. He had a plan.  We could relax.

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Two weeks ago on a Friday night we were driving across town to the rehearsal dinner for our goddaughter’s wedding. Our older girls were home from Austin and D.C.  My mom had flown in from PA. With the wedding weekend we had all anticipated for a year and a half upon us, Josiah, still in the hospital was due to be released the very next morning.

Rick and I knew we had to pack up his things and bring our boy home by 11 am Saturday morning.  In the midst of all the wedding excitement, with our 3 daughters enjoying rehearsal, the rehearsal dinner, a bridal luncheon and a wedding day preparation party, along with our oldest daughter’s boyfriend arriving from out of town, Josiah would be coming home. Not the best timing. Read more…

Rick and Ashley, had just left the hospital after spending a very long day with Josiah.  Though it was my turn to stay the night, the harrowing experience of being attacked by my own son was enough to scare me away.  I called Rick.  I texted Ashley.  Both were ready and willing to turn around and drive back to the hospital.  What an amazing support team.

Ashley called, insisting Rick needed to sleep since he had to go to work the next morning.  She assured me she felt perfectly safe spending the night with Josiah.  She has experience working with much older, much stronger, much more challenging kids than Josiah.  I was hugely relieved.

I hung up from Ashley and made my way back to Josiah’s hospital room.  I peered in and saw 3 nurses standing a safe distance away, all around his bed.  I was afraid to enter the room.  A sedative was brought in to calm Josiah who was bouncing joyfully on his knees on the bed.

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Josiah was sent home from the ER after spending 2 sedated hours sleeping there.  A Crisis Intervention Team arrived at our house a few hours later.  I had hoped they would provide a solution.  They were kind and compassionate, took lots of information and said basically there was nothing they could do.  Josiah was mildly bouncy and slightly agitated while they were here.

Later that same afternoon, after more pleas for help, Josiah’s psychiatrist called to say he wanted us to take Josiah to a different hospital.  Both he and Josiah’s pediatrician were very concerned about him.  They wanted various tests to be done to rule out anything medically that might be causing such violent outbursts. Since he’s non verbal, he is not able to tell us if something hurts or he doesn’t feel well.  I didn’t think there was anything physically wrong with my son, but getting him to a hospital where he could hopefully receive some help made sense.

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The last few weeks of summer and the first 3 days of the new school year were very difficult.  Josiah didn’t sleep much.  Most nights he averaged 3.5 to 4 hours of sleep at best. We had to take turns staying up with him, or trying to get him back to sleep.  After a few weeks, we called his psychiatrist to ask for something to help Josiah sleep. It didn’t work like we had hoped.

Over the years we have tried just about everything we could think of to help Josiah sleep.  I’ve even offered suggestions to other parents who faced similar sleep related issues.  Sometimes we’d have periods of time in which Josiah would sleep well.  Just a couple of months ago, I remember him taking my hand at 7:30 in the evening to walk me into his room.  He crawled up in his bed, scooted down under his ‘Skweezers’ and fell fast asleep. He slept til 8:30 or 9 the next morning. This lasted for weeks. Perhaps I was over confident during those days and felt I had answers to offer others.  I was wrong.  Dead wrong.

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