Category Archives: medicine

Medications, bane or beneficial?

Medication to control ADHD, bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses can be both a benefit and a bane to the children who take them. Our son, born addicted to illicit drugs, has had zero chance to function without medications modifying his affect.

What does this mean?

Simply put, without medications, he has little hope of being a functional member of society.  Even with medications, his chances are at best fifty percent.

Without meds, there is no self-control. He has a difficult time sitting still for more than a couple of minutes with his meds, without them, there is no sitting still.  He sleeps three to four hours a night without his meds, sometimes less.  With his meds, he averages about 6 though they are restless hours.  On some occasions, usually every couple of weeks he can go two to two and a half days without sleep.  We have no idea what causes these bursts.

We have done blood work like you can’t imagine. We have had a genetic make-up done of him. He has undergone an MRI, EEG and EKG.  All show little in the way of damage.  However, his complete and utter lack of empathy, shows that there is damage in the frontal lobe.

Currently, if someone is upset, if you look at him, you can see that he is analysing the emotion that he sees.  Sometimes you can even see him attempt to emulate that emotion.

One of the more frustrating things is that given his birth history of prenatal drug use, his body adapts quickly to new medications. His body is quick to metabolise and adapt to new medications.  So we are constantly working to keep ahead of his body.

 

Greetings on a New Day.

As we start week 3 after placement back at home for our youngest, I am struck with awe about how he can be two completely different kids.  There is the David we see when all of the kids are home, and there is the David we see when he is one – on – one with us.

We had to complete our weekly blood draw to monitor the ANC levels of his blood.  One of the meds he was on while he was in the residential placement caused issues with is blood.  It is a known side affect.  Now that the levels are returning to normal, he is struggling to get over a chest cold and sinus infection, so hopefully he will be able to go back on the med.  He was so much more stable mentally when he was on it. We didn’t see the large peaks and valleys in his affect then.

Moving forward, my wife and I are on the mend.  I at least don’t feel like my head is going to explode with every movement anymore.

Today, as part of our education plan, we had an outing.  We caught a ride up town to the clinic this morning, and then walked home. Along the way, we stopped and visited with the man from the hardware store, and then stopped at his store and ordered a new dryer for mom.  While we were there, we asked a lot of questions about things, and generally just interacted with the wonderful people working there.  New dryer should be here later this week.

Then we took our new garbage can and walked home.  Along the way we worked on making sure that we crossed the street appropriately, and talked about snow and how snow flakes are formed.  It was a very productive morning for the little guy, and he asked a lot of really good questions.  Now time for some free time, and then lunch.

Still working on getting the facilitated IEP set up.

Day 8 ~ snot today I tell you, don’t suck it in, blow!

I would call it a night cap, but I don’t drink, so we will call it a recap. 🙂

Last night, I had to go through some of our youngest son’s stuff. I found 5 9-volt batteries, the lids of two cat food cans, 8 pens, 2 nail clippers, 1 bag of cough drops, 1 box of granola bars and a screw driver from my computer tech kit.  So we are back to hoarding things again.  Not sure why he feels it is necessary to do this.  But, he does have OCD so maybe that is the only explanation available.

This morning, we heard only one thing from the school principal after our response yesterday to the PWN.  And that was a response that indicated that she was out of the office until Friday morning.  It wasn’t an out of office responder from Outlook or anything like that.  I know what those look like, and this was definitely not that.  But it also makes no attempt to schedule anything for the coming week.  Maybe she is just going to wait until Friday and try again. I don’t know.

On another note, the school counselor is a family friend who is deeply religious.  A trait we find endearing.  He is being lambasted by the administrators for not participating in meetings and activities at the elementary school that he has effectively been thrown out of.  He is never told about these events in advance, and since he doesn’t maintain time at the elementary school except for Fridays, he is not attuned to what is going on in that building.  Yet, he is constantly being lambasted for not attending events in the elementary school.

Now, I understand the concept of two sides to every story.  But, given the way we know the school treats parents, isn’t it reasonable to assume the possibility that they treat their employees almost as bad or just as bad?

Ok. Enough about the school. 🙂 For right now anyway, I promise.

David, our youngest is still fighting his cold. He was up frequently during the night coughing.  Hard to convince him that if he wants to get better, he needs to spit out whatever he coughs up rather than just swallowing it.  Same with the nose, if you sneeze, don’t suck it back in… get a kleenex and blow it the rest of the way out.  I know, it’s gross, but how do I convince a 10 year old oppositional defiant child with OCD, ADHD and autism that it is better for him to get it out than keep it in?  He is absolutely miserable when he is sick.

Today has been a fairly good day so far, yet it is only noon.  Here is a cheer for continued positive behavior  on his part, and continued positive support on my side.

Now it is time to put a turkey in the oven. Hope your day rocks!