First Week

His first week of school at Villa Marie was a week of learning, change, growth and acceptance.  Monday he seemed excited but wanted me to stay until after mass.  He was full of so much anxiety and paranoia about everything.  He was worried his luggage was too big, worried he had too many clothes, worried that we were late....it was a chore just assuring him that we needed to go inside and all would be fine.  When it was class time I could see his fear but the children were so kind.  They surrounded him and made him feel so much better.  I called at the end of the school day and the sisters said he did great.  However, at 7 o'clock they called and said he wanted to talk to me because he was missing me.  I talked him into staying but he sounded scared.  I told sister to give him his medicine and lets see what happened.  They called me back at 8 saying he was on the verge of crying.  He got on the phone and then he DID cry and wanted to come home . So off I went on a 45 minute drive one way only to get there and he was sound asleep!  I had to really work to get him awake.  He came home and went straight to bed. 

Tuesday morning he talked non-stop about how awesome it was there.  He said he really liked it but missed us which, of course, we understood.  I told him that if he stayed Tuesday night I would go get him Wednesday night to come home.  He agreed.  I called sister that night and they said he did wonderful and had gone off to bed with everyone.  I talked to her the next morning and she said he slept all night and did great.

Wednesday he said he did want to come home.  Once he got here, however, he said he liked it at school better than here because here was too loud.  This was a good sign!  He stayed at school Thursday night and when he came home Friday he seemed to not want to leave.  When I finally bribed him with a cheeseburger to get into the car because he had an appointment with his therapist, he did so reluctantly.  I noticed right away that he seemed to have fallen even further into some kind of mental stress and anxiety.  His therapist noticed it too.  He started telling her that his pencils were talking to him at THIS school too but he wasn't talking back to them.  He said they were aggravating him. 

The weekend was long, hard, and frightening.  So many bizarre behaviors.  Sunday night/Monday morning he woke me at 2 a.m. talking to his Transformers.  When I went to check on him he was walking through the house looking for a dictionary.  I asked why and he said so that he can learn big words because Optimus Prime uses big words and he doesn't understand them all. 

Monday he was anxious to get back to Villa Marie.  I dropped him off and headed straight to the doctor's office.  Long story short, they put him back on the Seroquel which is used for treating schizophrenia.  We are all praying that this helps him.  He is living in a strange and scary world that none of us understand.  My heart continues to cry for him.  My poor little boy.