The Continuing Saga of a Mother who is Parenting a Bipolar Kid

Two years have past since our D-Day. My life has changed quite dramatically in some ways and not at all in other ways. For instance, my not-so-dearly departed ex-husband, the dingle, who went completely crazy and stalked our family, passed away on May 9th, 2008.

Whew, what a relief! We were in the most heinous custody battle, in which I was about to lose, unfortunately for my children, who were terrified of his ever growing instability. The dingle, who was a mediocre parent at the best of times, was an even worse, neglectful, manipulative, and deceitful parent, since our separation. Among many other incidents, he was showing up at my children’s school and telling them I was going to go to jail, etc. It gets even better, people were calling me up and stopping me on the street and asking if he was homeless. This crazy homeless person was a once an intelligent attorney, who graduated from George Washington Law School.

Since all of this trauma and drama, I have been remarried to a wonderful man for a year, who emotionally supports me and both of my children, and fundamentally does no wrong. We live in a nice town in Maryland and on some days we can have a peaceful existence. As for my cancer, it seems to stay in remission for the most part.

What hasn’t changed, is the wheeling and dealing of Miss M’s bipolar disorder and learning disabilities. Most of the time, I feel as there has been no progress at hand. I have been taking her to Brooklane Mental Health Services in Hagerstown, MD. The child psychiatrist that has been treating her for the past year, has been very nice, and has done all of the medication changes. However, Miss M is not stable for very long, and only for a couple of months here and there. Plus, Hagerstown seems a little backwards in terms of psychiatric care. Which makes me wonder, does Miss M need a more in-depth mental health treatment facility?

Yesterday, while surfing the internet, I discovered that the U.S. News and World Report publishes yearly the top 100 best hospitals, which listed John Hopkins Hospital as the number 2 Psychiatric Hospital in the U.S. I dug a little deeper and found out that they have a children’s ward with a psychiatric department. I am going to contact them tomorrow to see if I can get Miss M an appointment, since I am feeling pretty desperate.

If anyone can shed any light on receiving the most comprehensive psychiatric care for children in and around Maryland, do tell, please.