@Shaz51 @Sans911 @Former-Member @MDT @greenpea @Zoe7
Hope you had a lovely evening with your son @Former-Member . My 21yo came home from the city for a family dinner for my 19yo's birthday but it didn't happen. In the afternoon I took my 11yo to his friends birthday which was a bushwalk to a waterfall. Unfortunately within 5 minutes of arriving at the base of the waterfall, he climbed a tree with his mates. Asked to get down, he began to do so but lost his grip of the tree trunk, slipped & fell 3 metres onto rocks below. The extraction took 3 paramedics & a team of 6 Fire & Rescue staff and over 3 hours of carrying him uphill on a guerney to reach the road where the emergency vehicles were parked. I was with him until about 11pm last night then my husband spent overnight in the emergency dept paediatric short stay unit. I just phoned & apparently there has been no further vomiting due to the concussion. My handy fitbit tells me I've had 2hrs 28 minutes sleep after walking over 11kms yesterday! I feel relatively optimistic about my 11yo's head injury and even my 65yo husband's diagnosis of epilepsy 2 months ago (appears to be well controlled by medication & we're getting by with the inconvenience of being a family of 4 children with him not driving) BUT I was blindsided by a call from the school guidance officer 2 days ago about our 14yo boy. A peer anonymously reported that he'd appeared to be depressed and hurting himself for 'a long time'. My husband and I had been concerned about him over the last 6 months & have been talking regularly with him about how we might help/support him as he'd been spending more time in his room etc etc. Anyway, turns out he has been cutting himself (at least 14 scars so probably more than the 3 times he's claiming). He's a kind likeable kid with friends, but he's bright (a deep thinker with a great sense of humour). Teachers told the Guidance Officer that the curriculum is not challenging him (I've known this for ages but frustratingly have never got any traction with husband/school on extension work etc for him although I've recently enrolled him in a Drama group which he's loving & has developed 2 extra friendships there). The school Guidance Officer is trying to negotiate some upgrades re class changes & will do a WISC (IQ test). My husband is taking him to the GP tomorrow & I'm guessing a mental health care plan with an allied health professional will be warranted. I don't want to tell my 2 closest friends because of the stigma around cutting (and one is a social worker who is a school guidance officer & I don't want to worry her on top of her own work/family demands, so I'm sharing my story here hoping for some support). Of course I'm trying not to think about how my depression & my family history of depression may have impacted him but it's hard. My parents are deceased and my only sibling is quite narcissistic and anxious so I certainly won't be speaking to him about it (he's actually part of the reason I became depressed ... did I mention he's a psychiatrist??!!! 🤣😳🙃)
