[Trigger warning: Child suicidal ideation and depression are discussed in this post] When I heard the doorbell ring the first time, I didn’t think anything of it. It was in the middle of the day a few weeks ago, Emily was gone at an appointment, and I was immersed in a task for work that I had been trying to finish for some time. Taylor and Jackson were home and in the room right next to me as their school had gone to an online-only format for a two-week period. Jackson was playing Minecraft on the iPad as he didn’t have any ...

Taylor has now completed 50 sessions of PrTMS and continues to show overall improved behaviors at home and at school. Her teacher reported to Emily last week, “I’ve never seen Taylor so happy. It’s a night and day difference between now and a couple of months ago.” So awesome to hear. I asked Taylor on the way home from a treatment session if she thought PrTMS has been beneficial for her and in what ways. Without any additional prompts from me, she responded that she felt it has helped her sleep better, have fewer headaches, and not have to run away as ...

This morning we woke up to this sweet note. Taylor had the idea that she and Makenzie would make us breakfast. They made me a peanut butter and honey toast and prepared Emily a bowl of Raisin Bran cereal. This doesn’t seem like anything significant, but Taylor has never really done anything like this so for us it was pretty huge. According to Makenzie, this was all Taylor’s idea. This morning Taylor pulled out some little cards she got when we were doing ABA therapy last summer that each have a suggested activity to help her figure out what to do ...

Taylor has now completed 35 sessions of PrTMS and its time for an overdue update. We have seen improvements in her sleep (falls asleep faster, wakes up fewer times during the night), improved behaviors at school (fewer elopements, less frequent suicidal ideation), and an overall improvement with her impulse control and behavior at home. We first started tracking Taylor’s suicidal ideations and elopements from home in the middle of December (I wish we would have started tracking this sooner!) and overall we have seen a decline in both of these since then. See chart below: Each column shows a full week of ...

I want to share more about Taylor but instead of rewriting Taylor’s story, I am posting the text from a GoFundMe campaign we recently did to raise money for PrTMS treatment for Taylor. — Our oldest daughter Taylor is a bright and witty 10-year-old who was officially diagnosed with autism, severe anxiety, severe depression, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) and ADHD two years ago. We are raising money for a treatment for her called PrTMS (Personalized repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation) to help relieve some of her suffering and help her regain her childhood. The reason we’ve decided to move forward with this GoFundMe ...