Woodstone Prairie

After living for so long in the city, having a dozen neighbors within just a couple of minutes of us, it’s been different getting used to our nearest neighbor being a good 5-10 minute walk away.

I don’t mind… I like not hearing the neighbor’s TV when the windows are open during the summer, or not being able to park in front of my house because someone else is already parked there. But I wondered how much neighborliness there would be with everyone so spread out.

As it’s turned out, there is lots of neighborliness out here and we had a great example of it the other night. We had just finished up dinner when R noticed headlights in the driveway. We almost never get company, so headlights in the driveway is a big deal… (The kids greet the UPS guy like an old friend, I’m lucky they don’t invite him in for a dinner!) We looked out to see who was here and it was a pick-up truck with a snowplow on the front. Whoever it was, was plowing our driveway! As they were finishing plowing I dashed downstairs and outside to thank them… But they didn’t stop, they plowed back up the driveway and were gone.

I waved our thanks as they left, but I’m not sure which neighbor did the plowing… It wasn’t one of our “next door” neighbors, as I know their pick-ups pretty well. And since everyone out here has a pick-up truck there is no easy way to narrow down who went out of their way to drive over and plow for us. (The roads had already been plowed by the county, so this person drove over… on plowed roads… to clean up our driveway!)

Since I can’t figure out who it was plowing and thank them for it, I’ve decided I need to pay it forward. I’m terrible at snow plowing (getting our little plow stuck more often than actually moving any snow!) so I’m watching for opportunities to do something else for someone…

I’ve spend the past couple of days looking into using branched chain amino acids to treat M’s tardive dyskinesia. I found a couple of studies showing BCAA to help with TD symptoms, and since lowering M’s haldol didn’t work (only leading to the train wreck of a day we had on Tuesday) I’ve decided to look more seriously into treatment with BCAA.

I thought it would be easy (but expensive). I’d just figure out the right dose, buy the BCAA (it’s actually three amino acids combined), and give it to M three times a day. As it turns out that’s a vastly oversimplified picture of what this is going to take. The right dose was fairly easy to find, I’m just going to give the dose used in the studies. (222 mg per kilogram of body weight) Figuring it out M’s dose required converting M’s weight to kilograms, multiplying by 222 mg, then converting that number into grams and dividing it by 3 (the BCAA are given three times a day). The whole formula was a little bit of a stretch for a math challenged person such as myself, but I figured it out… 

Then I tracked down (it took two days) the company that used to make the BCAA mixture used in the studies. Sigh… they no longer manufacture it, there is some kind of licensing problem. But they gave me the name and number of a company I can buy the individual BCAA powders from. The trouble is, I’ll have to mix it myself… 12 grams of isoleucine, 19.2 grams of leucine and 13.4 grams of valine. She said the exact mix of BCAA’s is very important…it’s what gives the supplement it’s effectiveness. That means I’m going to need a pharmacy scale. I haven’t figured that part out yet… I wonder if I can rent one?!

Before I actually start the BCAA the pediatrician wants to review the studies, and wanted me to talk to the neurologist (which I did yesterday). So far no one is saying NOT to try it (the pediatrician is still checking into possible side effects), so I’m going to keep moving trying to get everything in place to start the BCAA as soon as possible. Realistically though, it will probably be after the first of the year before it all comes together.

Both kids are doing well right now… I think we’re all enjoying the calm after the storm. After unsuccessfully trying to decrease the haldol by a tiny step (.25 mg), which led to a major disconnect, I’ve increased it again and it’s wonderful to have my boy “back”. He also seems happy to be back, and has been agreeable, cooperative, and playing so nicely with R. They hung out together all yesterday afternoon without one squabble… which is NOT something that happens often!

We’ve got more of the unending shopping to do today, it’s such a blessing that M is doing well enough that I can easily take him to the store. I bought the makings of our Christmas dinner yesterday, so even if nothing else gets done we’ll have our dinner. Which reminds me… I need to get some tamales. We have a family tradition of a big tamale dinner just before Christmas. I need to get moving and find some good tamales! Maybe I’ll do that today too… (I don’t make them myself, LOL, but I’m an expert at finding good ones to buy!)

More snow is on the way today (at least for us)…. stay warm!