Two Month Eating Disorder Recovery Update (Wendy)

Week 8 Goals/activities

• Dietitian appointment

• Practice

  • ACT worksheets

  • Recognizing thoughts and feelings

  • Building positive thinking skills

• Weigh in

• Open house event

• Day on her own

Dietitian appointment

Sam has been doing ok but not 100% on completing all meals. Dinner time still is the most challenging. We talked about Sam’s thoughts around mealtime, and Sam’s dietitian told Sam to come up with affirmations around mealtime to talk back to her thoughts. She was given some homework to write out these affirmations and keep them visible during meals. Also we did not do increases for this week but we did decide to a start challenging fear foods. I have been waiting for this because I have wanted to make cinnamon buns for a while now. So 3 of Sam’s morning snacks went from a pineapple muffin made by Sam to cinnamon buns made by me.

Practice

Sam is continuing work on identifying thoughts and emotions, and learning how to sit with them. This is an area where patience is required on my part. As a mom and career you just want all these negative emotions to be gone but it takes time to rewire the brain. This area is so important for Sam. Understanding how she is feeling will not only help her in healing from ED but it is the cornerstone of being able to recognize what is causing her anxiety in social situations. Once what is unsettling her steps can be made to reduce her anxiety. As for working on ACT worksheets, this has been put on hold as Sam learns the skills of identifying her thoughts and feelings and works on affirmations. Affirmations that directly challenge her negative thoughts are the building blocks to developing positive thinking skills.

Weigh in

This week's weigh in went well. Sam’s vitals were the best they have been since we have been doing the check ins. They are still under the normal range but they are improving. As for weight gain, we did see a slight gain. This is good news and made me very happy but I figure the weight gain was not easy to accept for Sam. I tried to make this not a big deal so that her negative thoughts would not be fed.

Open House event

The barn where Sam works held an open house event where the general public was invited to meet the horses and have a tour of the facilities. I was so happy for this event as it gave Sam an opportunity to go back to her workplace and socialize with her co-workers. Her involvement was to help paint some horses for the event. I know she enjoys working with horses and she is getting some great support from her work team. I am also hoping that being back in this environment will help keep her motivated to beat her ED. We do have a weight goal set for Sam to meet before she is allowed to go back to work and we are planning a slow return. I know they miss her and will welcome her back when she is ready.

Day on her own

Being this is the end of my scheduled time off, it is back to work for me. The last day of week 8 was my first day back to work. This meant that Sam was alone for most of her meals. She was left with planned meals and snacks. There were a few minor things left out but for the most part it went well. Days like this are important as we need to see how well Sam will be able to stay on track and manage her food intake on her own. I am hopeful that her autism traits will bring positive results. Sam’s need for a plan and the fact that she is rule and routine based are traits that I am relying on to carry her through the days when she is on her own.

Going forward

Being this is the end of my scheduled time off, and I am back to work, we will see a change in our schedule. I have asked to be scheduled for later shifts so that I can continue to support Sam for most of the day’s meals. Her dad will be home to support her for afternoon snacks and dinner. I know that I will have the odd day shift and that is fine as we do need to challenge Sam to learn to have self care. A slow transition in this area is helpful as there are adjustments that need to be made such as prepared meals and directions to keep the progress going in a positive direction. This also means that I have less time to devote to Sam's care and that I will be relying on the rest of our team more. Updating this blog for me may move to 2 week intervals or once a month. We will see how things unfold.

Other tid-bits

Our morning routine is staying consistent with getting in yoga and meditation between our breakfast and morning snack. What has changed is who we are having our morning snack with. We decided to buy some peanuts for the squirrel that was stealing our tomatoes. When we first started putting out the peanuts a crow decided to come in and help itself. The crow turned into 2 crows and a squirrel. Now we are up to 2 crows and 2 squirrels and the odd blue jay. This has added to our morning entertainment for us and our cat.

Week 9 Goals/Activities

• Dietitian appointment

• Challenging fear foods

• Practice

  • Recognizing thoughts and feelings

  • Building positive thinking skills

• Adjusting to new schedule

• Restaurant Dinner with work colleagues