We just returned from hospital.

May 19, 2008

My wife, daughter, and I just returned from the hospital at 1:45 a.m. We are

convinced that you parents of children with ocd know much more than the

" professionals. " We went to one hospital, that our psychiatrist suggested we

take her to. Their psychiatric unit closed in April. They directed us to a

" mental health hospital. " We then went there. The place gave us the creeps as

soon as we entered the parking lot. It had only been open for six weeks. We

knew that since it was Sunday evening they may be short - staffed; however,

things went from bad to worse. The first person we talked to was a " counselor. "

She acted like she didn't understand why we were even there. Then, a

psychiatrist came in to talk to us. He was the one on call for the night, so he

was not a child psychiatrist (Thank God!) He scared us and our daughter and

acted like he was a nervous wreck. We told him the situation with our daughter

(age 6) and the intrusive thoughts of killing her mom and

I. We told him that we wanted to be able to stay with our daughter, if she was

admitted. He said that at least one parent had to stay. We were so relieved.

He then called a child psychiatrist and she suggested that our daughter be

admitted. They then had to do a " bed search " in other hospitals for our

daughter since this hospital was full. A social worker then came in to talk to

us about choices of hospitals. I asked her if every hospital would allow the

parents to stay with the child. She said, " No. " I said we would then wait for

her to be admitted to that hospital when there was a bed open, since we could

stay with her. She said that if our daughter was admitted there, we would only

be able to see her during visiting hours. I then said that the dr. we had

talked to said that at least one parent had to stay. She then went and got him

and asked him about it. He said that he meant at least one of us had to stay

there tonight (in the " waiting room " ) with our

daughter to see if a bed would be open in the morning, but we couldn't stay

with her once she was admitted. I flipped at this point. The thought of

leaving our daughter in a strange place (with people we don't know - drs. or

not) just made us sick. There was no decision to be made. We told them to

forget it. We were taking her home. I told my wife I could become an advocate

for kids with ocd. I don't understand the logic behind keeping a 6 year old

little girl (with separation anxiety) away from her parents. I know that may be

necessary in certain cases, but we could see no way it could help our daughter's

situation. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think sometimes a parent must go with their

" gut feeling. " I don't know where we'll go from here, other than tomorrow we

are going to see about getting more intensive behavior therapy for her. Thanks

so much for all your responses and prayers. You are getting my wife and I

through this much better than the drs. -hh

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