It’s been about a year and a half since we made the decision to have Alex placed outside the home, and still he has these horrible periods of sibbing (to “sib” means to engage in self-injurious behaviors).
We took some video during a recent home visit (about a week ago) demonstrating just how much rage and anxiety Alex still has. He appears to be “stuck” in a behavior of hitting his chin into his shoulder, and even his bath time doesn’t fully calm him down.
Since Alex’s placement, I haven’t provided a single new video. I need to get better about that – our video is the only way people can see Alex; my words don’t do the situation justice. So when Alex was having a really tough time, I asked my wife to get it on video.
We ended up sending him home after just over an hour with us, one of our shortest visits in a while. It’s just another in a recent string of bad visits, though this one was possibly the worst. I can’t remember how long it’s been since we had a truly good visit. 6 weeks? 8?
If you watch the full video, you’ll see that he’s torn open both chin and shoulder due to the behavior. After he left, we made the decision to call the home and authorize a dose of Ativan to calm him down and hopefully break the pattern so he could rest and heal. Yesterday’s visit we saw that the wounds are indeed healing, but he’s still hitting his chin to his shoulder regularly enough to keep the sores from properly scabbing over and closing up.
If Alex had cannabis in his home regularly…
- Would it calm his rage and anxiety?
- Would it remove the need for some of his other medications, thereby reducing potentially painful side-effects like headaches?
- Would he be able to focus and explore the world around him, rather than being a victim of whatever agony is causing him to tear up his body like this?
- Would he be happier?
I can’t claim the answer to all these questions is “yes”, but I suspect at a minimum Alex would indeed be happier. Of course, until we’re given a chance to try the only medication that ever showed promise, we can only guess.