Alex has been having a few set backs with his ADHD. He had a huge growth spurt in the last month and it really pushed him past the range of his last medication. He has been acting out, testing boundaries, and generally pushing his luck. He sometimes tries really hard...but over the last week I could tell that he wasn't even remotely trying at all. Just a free for all. I knew something was different. Something had changes. We had crossed a red line. I didn't know exactly what it was, but I knew something had changed. I called the doctor's office....they said "you have a med check in two weeks." I said " No I need a med check this week" His doctor is out of the country! OMGOSH!!! That will not do! Then and there I made one of the most rash decisions I have ever made about my children's health care I have ever made....I switched him to another pediatrician he had only seen one other time because I need this med check to happen before the two weeks. Thank God Nathan was behind me on this one and Alex really liked the new doctor. We will miss the other doctor...but the new one was really thorough and took plenty of time to listen to all of our concerns.
The next big realization was he has just moved into a whole new class of medications...
One that required not my social security number but his...
And it is considered a controlled substance...so if he runs out before the end of the month...we are just outta luck...oh my gosh...we better measure right every time! It also carries some really strange possible side effects...aside from the usual ADHD medications causing slowed growth. It can cause anxiety, suicidal thoughts, dry mouth, and irregular joint pain. Don't all of those sound like fun. I am really scared to give this to my seven year old son...but I am also really scared to send my seven year old out into the world unprepared to control his self. He's a great kid and so sweet and loving. I don't want to be the mom that denies that anything is wrong until he's too old to be able to develop any kind of self control. I am hoping this medication is just allowing him to grow into that young man. Right now...he really doesn't have that capability at all. I pray he will someday. Until then I will be his advocate.
My poor baby has been dealing with the worst side effects. He has been going though detox at this point. We only gave him one dose of the ADHD medication on Wednesday morning. Almost right away he started having hiccups...I didn't think anything of it until I wrote his teacher and asked how he was doing on the new medication. She said he was doing fine but was complaining of a tummy ache and had the hiccups. Weird. He came home from school...wound up...well that isn't any better than the other medication. And the hiccups are pretty much continuous. As we got closer to bed time the more wound up he got...that isn't cool! So we got out the Melatonin and he got a dose and went to lay down. He didn't seem to be able to fall asleep so we turned on his music. At 10pm I looked in on him and he was wide awake and sitting in bed and listening to his music. We sent him to the bathroom and took the music away. He laid down and we all tried to get some sleep. He tried desperately to get to sleep but after hours of tossing and turning Nathan went in to lay down with him. He spent several hours with him in and out of sleep...beating the hell out of Nathan. Alex had muscle spasms and seemed to sleep so restlessly that it seemed like nightmares. Then Alex started complaining about his stomach again. He told Nathan to leave his bedroom. Nathan to came back to our room. This was close to 3:30 in the morning. Neither Nathan or I had gotten much sleep. We were hoping that Alex sending Nathan back to our room meant that he was really ready to sleep. He was not. He slept but it was so restless that we went and got him and brought him into our room so we could keep an eye on him. At 6:30 I gave up sleeping and we got up and started the day. He was very agitated and hard to keep still. I called the doctor's office and talked over the issues that we had been having after just one dose. One crazy night! The doctor had us hold the next dose. The craziness continued into the dose free day. He wasn't sick but very tired. He left for school at his regular time and I sent his teacher a note and told her everything that was going on. Her response was that this was the first time all year that Alex had exhibited ADHD symptoms. We had done such a great job of treating them and keeping his medication at a good level we had never had an issues at school this year...lost last year. We made every effort to get his medication worked out over the summer so that this school year he wouldn't be struggling. The hiccups continued until about midnight last night. He's also seems to have come down with some kind of stomach bug too...poor kid. I called the doctor back today and told the nurse I was not interested in giving him that medication that made him have side effects that were way worse that the disease he has. We had the doctor go back to previous medication but the extended release variety. Praying this is the answer for my boy.