Managing mood swings

Olivia is currently on dexamethasone,  the steroid that causes mood swings and increase in appetite. She takes it twice a day during the first 5 days of every month as part of her maintenance protocol. The side effects of it lasts longer though. Just imagine a kid who is always cranky and hungry for half of the month. She is really happy one moment and then cries inconsolable the next minute. She gets very sentimental with the little things. We've seen it the worst during her 1st month of treatment so what we see now is nothing compared to how she was. My husband and I have learned how to manage the situation the best way we could. I can see through her and know that deep down inside is this sweet and cheerful little girl who is just sick and tired of all the medication and needle poking. It is not her fault that she is in this. We just try to make her feel that we are all in this together.

If there was someone other than Olivia that I admire the most during this most difficult time is our 5 year old son, who through it all has always tried to understand what we are going through. He mostly takes the brunt of Olivia's "episodes" and it's hard for him to understand why Olivia reacts in certain ways. He's starting to ask many questions about Olivia and it breaks my heart whenever he cries and asks how she got sick and when she will end her medications. I've been explaining to him that just before he turns 7, Olivia should be off meds and will be better, God willing. It makes him sad that on his 6th birthday Olivia will still be on chemo. He said that he just wants it to be Christmas so it will be that 1 day Olivia will just be happy. I think that's why he has started to play a lot of Christmas songs lately. Good thing Olivia is not scheduled for dexamethasone during Christmas! 

I really do hope and pray that things will get better during the dexamethasone period and that Olivia can learn to take control of her emotions. As with everything else, we know that this too shall pass.