Lunch And A Walk With Ben

Ben's clinical was moved up a week due to some rearranging that needed to take place which actually worked great for me as we had January 3 as an holiday for the January 1 day on Saturday.

Ben did very well at his clinical and probably talked more on topic than any other clinical in the past 14 months.  So that is good.  That means lowering one medication was the right move, but now the problem is what can replace that medication and provide some relief for Ben.  The Million dollar question!

Ben was still experiencing paranoia about going outside, but decided that he wanted to go to lunch with me.  We headed to Arby's and then came back and ate in the car.  We passed the urban herd of deer that live on the State Hospital grounds.

After we ate, we took a short walk around the building for Ben to practice being outside so he could join a couple of activities over the next few days.

He was able to join those activities, then he had a couple of high anxiety days about outside, but now he is managing short visits outside again.  Seems almost like no rhyme or reason to it which is frustrating.  It was determined that he had a UTI and he begun treatment on Wednesday but that seems unrelated, but who knows.

One of the reasons for the change in Ben's clinical date that was given to me was to make it easier for the DBH liaison to attend the meetings.  Since I have not spoken to her since Ben's admission last November and Ben thinks he has only seen her once AND she has not attended any of Ben's clinicals, I was supportive of making it easier for her.  But she still was not there at the meeting. Darn...Ben has been asking about her--not because they have much of a relationship but because he sees her as the person from DBH who impacts when he can leave.  He feels they have sent him there to stay "forever."

With Covid and with our experiences with the liaison last time, I haven't been too worried about it.  Dr. Schenk reaches out herself once a month to check on Ben so I felt that was good enough.  However, since Ben has been worried about it and they moved the meeting specifically to allow it to be easier for the liaison, I asked where she was,  Everyone looked at each other in that "what should we say?" and Dr. Roundy asked if he could email me about it.  He said it is a USH problem with liaisons.  I indicated that I could reach out to DBH and indicate why we needed her to be involved.  He said at this point, it was a problem more on their end and he would email me.

Later that afternoon, I got more information about the problems and a name of someone to call and talk to about it.  Politics.....however, I see how it is impacting Ben and he feels DBH has forgotten him (even though he knows that I talk to Dr. Schenk.) and if it is impacting Ben, it is likely impacting other patients.

I ended up sick with a stomach bug for last half of the week, but it is on my "to-do" list for this week.  I don't understand much about why Ben has to have schizophrenia, but I do understand that things that negatively impact Ben impact other patients as well and Ben and I have to be a voice for all of those who don't have a voice.