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all’s quiet on the northern front

Well, all is quiet currently. Everyone is sleeping except me and the cat.

The only noise is our dog Sugar Bear.  He must be having a heck of a dream.

Sable Pomeranian

Image via Wikipedia

I find it amazing everyday that a child with so much turmoil, and angst can sleep so peacefully.  I am talking about David.  From the constant lies about what he is or is not doing to the near constant arguments about what he can and can not do, I am exhausted mentally by noon, and he could go for another 12 hours.

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day.  Our furnace died yesterday.  Tomorrow the repairman comes.  Surprisingly, our house has been fairly comfortable considering we live on the northern plains.

What mischievous deeds will David get up to tomorrow?

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and so ends the great debate

Our youngest son David loves to argue.  Everything for him is something that can be debated.

Tell him that he needs to clean up his kleenex, and he will tell you why he can’t do it, and he might use something you said yesterday to him as an excuse.  Tell him he needs to eat his supper before he has a snack, and he will tell you that he ate his supper and then will tell you what he ate for lunch.  When you ask him who made this supper, he would say, so and so made it for me at lunchtime.  Well, since it is 6:30 in the evening, you need to eat a regular meal before you have a snack.

For discipline, one of the few things that works is to have him cover his head.  Normally we don’t keep him under there for more than about 10 minutes.  1 minute for each year of his life.  But, he will pop in and out with different questions, excuses and arguments for the next hour and never fully be disciplined for 10 minutes.  It doesn’t matter to him that he has been there for an hour, all that matters is he didn’t have to be under the blanket for 10 minutes.

So why had the debate ended?  He fell asleep. 🙂  I love him and tomorrow is a brand new day!

 

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.