45 min rage episode

[browneyesmom]

dd11 just had a severe 45 min long episode here; last nights was only about 20 min, which is up from last few days. Definitely getting worse. She's lying on the floor still now after the thrashing phase, but it's not over... probably another hour or so before she comes back to something resembling normalcy. So. Totally. Unlike. Her! :~((

 

I have scratches all over my hands, some of them bleeding. She bit my inner thigh at one point... this was with both my husband and I restraining her from the attacks on us.

 

Great, now hallucinations, poor baby...

 

I find myself not knowing how to cope anymore. What do you do to deal with these violent rages?

 

Why do they rage? What determines how long they last and why they suddenly stop and go into that thrashing phase?

[Bill]

dd11 just had a severe 45 min long episode here; last nights was only about 20 min, which is up from last few days. Definitely getting worse. She's lying on the floor still now after the thrashing phase, but it's not over... probably another hour or so before she comes back to something resembling normalcy. So. Totally. Unlike. Her! :~((

 

I have scratches all over my hands, some of them bleeding. She bit my inner thigh at one point... this was with both my husband and I restraining her from the attacks on us.

 

Great, now hallucinations, poor baby...

 

I find myself not knowing how to cope anymore. What do you do to deal with these violent rages?

 

Why do they rage? What determines how long they last and why they suddenly stop and go into that thrashing phase?

 

 

I'm sorry. And I do not have any real answers for you. Our son initially responded very well to low dose Zoloft and now responds well with Prozac. Definitely not our choice but for him it has made this bearable.

 

At its worst - after Zoloft stopped working and before we found Prozac, we did forcibly carry him to the ER once. Once there, he calmed down pretty quick and thereafter did better getting himself under control as he knew we would take him back. Prior to using the SSRIs - when he was 4 and years before we realized these were not the terrible twos greatly delayed - I can tell you that I sometimes physically restrained him for over an hour at a time until he became too exhausted to fight anymore.

 

If it helps at all - our son does not remember any of those times. I hope he never does.

[kferricks]

I'm sorry. I'm not sure if my DD ever halucinated but she has had times that she did'nt remember. After a couple months of my DD rages, I did instill a new law in my house. She was allowed to have a rage anytime she wanted but she had better go into my room to do it. She does go into my room anytime she is upset now. She used to go back there and scream at the top of her voice for hours. It was much more bearable for her to remove herself and then I would go in and check on her. Sometimes she wanted me there and other times she would scream louder if I came in. It got to a point that she would go in and I would wait 5min, then 1 min etc. before I would go check on her. This eventually led to her being able to go in by herself and eventually come back out on her own much calmer even if she was still upset.

 

I know this is probably not much help and I'm sorry, my DDs' rages were never abusive towards me except twice.

 

Do you see them comming on before they actually come on? I was always able to see that. If you do, maybe you can walk her into a specific room (beds, padding) and explain that you see she is very anxious and that she needs to stay there untill she is feeling a little better? With this, it is good to know relaxing technics like visualizing. Have her write down (while she is in a good place or moment) something that is peacefull to her. Then practice with her on how to use it. Like a whitehorse, can you see it standing in the meadow? What color are the flowers? Does the horse have thick long flowing hair? Can you hear the babbling brook?

 

Sounds corney but can have a very calming effect. But really needs to be practiced a couple times when they are receptive before it will help during a rage.

 

(((hugs)))

[browneyesmom]

In her case, we think Prozac made her worse and elevated her LFT & porphyrins, so they d/c'd that and switched her to Tegretol (migraines) and Risperdal.

 

I do often see her heading that way... she can be very hyped up before one, even seeming giddy at times. She later will say that she does not know why she was laughing and that she felt weird when that happened.

 

She does not remember most of them. When she does, it is deeply upsetting to her.

 

It's over now. She came out of it and called for me "Mommy" in a normal voice. She went up to bed; I'm not far behind her.

 

I really, really wonder if this is 'turning back pages' from her starting IVIG. I wish I could remember if the prognosis is better or worse for kids who have that. We are at the 6 week point from her first HD IVIG and 1 week from her second one.

[peglem]

I keep starting to reply here, then don't because I know exactly the h3ll you're going through, but have nothing terribly useful for you. Rages are the worst!

 

What helps a little for us is to feed snacks every 1/2 hour to hour- never let tummy get light. And go heavy on the protein.

For awhile, when things were seriously bad w/ more time spent in rage than not, we used melt-in-your-mouth risperdal (M-tabs) as needed. Very easy to slip one inside her cheek when a rage started. Takes about 10 minutes to get into her system and shut off the rage.

Seriously praying that things get better for you all very soon!

[Cassi]

Did she have rages prior to getting the IVIG?

[browneyesmom]

Ok, after some sleep and my clawed hands are not quite as sore this morning.

 

ShadowTails... I do like the idea of visualization and going to a safe room for her; only thing is that we have tried that in the past with no success at all. I'd be willing to try again, but I worry about the self-harm issue where she will sometimes try to get out a window on the second floor.... I'll have to think about that and what we might be able to try.

 

Yes, Cassi, she did have rages before IVIG... the rage itself was lasting up to 2 hours before she was hospitalized at Christmas. So, um... this is actually not as bad as then... if one can rate such things.

 

Peggy!!! There is a sub-lingual Risperdal?!?!?!?! It may be hard to get it and keep it in her mouth during rages; but, it's worth a try and I'm calling our doc NOW!!! Thank you so much & God bless you for telling me this!! She already has to eat often & heavy on protein due to having reactive hypoglycemia and yes, that definitely makes a difference for her too.

Edited February 4, 2011 by browneyesmom

[peglem]

 

 

Peggy!!! There is a sub-lingual Risperdal?!?!?!?! It may be hard to get it and keep it in her mouth during rages; but, it's worth a try and I'm calling our doc NOW!!! Thank you so much & God bless you for telling me this!! She already has to eat often & heavy on protein due to having reactive hypoglycemia and yes, that definitely makes a difference for her too.

Its really easy to slip it in the side of the mouth around clenched teeth! And it dissolves instantly, like cotton candy- I don't think she'll be able to spit it out once its in there. It tastes slightly minty.

[MaMole]

My heart aches for you. My dd takes clonazapam, wears a catapres-tts patch and is on 875 mg of amox 2 x a day and she is remarkably better. She just started this feb.1. I believe the patch helped the most after 24 hrs and is controlling things while the antibiotic has time to work. We have been living a similar nightmare. Not sure if this info. Helps or not but Best wishes to you.

[browneyesmom]

Thanks for all the responses!

Peggy, that is a relief to know. Our ped called in 0.5 mg SL Risperdal prn and we'll keep her on the 0.25 twice daily for now. He also increased her antibiotic. She was exposed to strep earlier this week, I just learned that.

MDMom, thanks... might have to try something like that if this does not help.

I hope she never remembers them!