THIRD FAIL with meds.
After two big fails with stimulants, we gave DS Strattera (a non-stimulant) yesterday and oh. my. gawd. where. did. my. son. go? and please bring him BACK!
We were late giving it to him, around 1ish and by dinner, my normallly famished child "wasn't very hungry" and an hour later had lost ALL expression in his voice and face, was sullen and sad, lethargic, and just pretty lifeless. That is to say that while yes, he is pretty high-energy and has some spastic tendencies, the person he was last night scared the crap out of me. I would rather have him how he is- blissfully happy, positive, out-going, fun, funny, loving, adventurous, and yes, at times very loud and spastic, then what I saw last night.
I know it was only one day, but I cannot risk seeing him like that or having that as a by-product of a slightly more attentive student at school. Screw that.
What am I going to do?
Re: THIRD FAIL with meds.
Oh, no. That's terrible. Call the doctor Monday and make an appt. Did the dr. indicate what type of side effects you might notice and the timeframe?
I can't really call our doctor because I'm 95% sure I'll just get his nurse, who will send him an email that he may or may not respond to. Besides, I gotta get to someone who knows these meds...not our pediatrician who isn't admitting this is all out of his realm.
Believe me, we read all we could find about it before- and while both of us are hesitant, we're also desperate for change. But not at that cost.
I'm really suprised to have seen such an immediate response because from what I've read/been told it can take weeks to see the full effect of the drug- I suppose they mean the good effect of the drug. Until that point, are we supposed to just watch him live each day like that? And wait a month, not knowing if it will even work.
I'm not going to do that. And I'm pretty sick of testing out not 1, not 2, but 3 different crazy drugs on my 8 year old.
Also, Strattera seems pretty "new"- less than 10 years and from what I've read it seems to deal more with mood disorders- at least that is the sense I get from the reading I've done- that it wasn't designed specifically for ADHD.
Auntie? THoughts?
Another person in the TC's! We go to the UofM and have been very happy other than paying for parking
Another person in the TC's! We go to the UofM and have been very happy other than paying for parking
Our pediatrician is at Park Nicollet- not happy at all with him/the experience. I am looking at going to the U right now...
Oh! I didn't realize that PNC had dev. pedi's. I don't care for PNC at all anyway. You can never get through to an actual doctor; only the nurse. We go to Children's-Mpls. LOVE our dev. Pedi. We are always able to talk to him on the phone. He returns calls timely if he's not available when we call. Also, doesn't rush us during appts.
Your experience at Children's has been the opposite of mine at PN...I am ready for the change!
My H works at Children's too! Not in medicine, but on the technology side (which brings us back to an earlier post about trends in parents of kids on the spectrum/developmental issues)
and on a different note, I am technically challenged and cannot figure out how to respond to people directly...I've tried highlighting, copying, and pasting- doesn't work, and hitting "quote" doesn't work either. WTH. Auntie has tried to explain it to me, can someone else try once more? What am I missing?
So possibly Autistic AND NLD? Yikes. Sounds scary.
I know we need to get a specialist asap. Working on appointment.
Mostly the behaviors that I haven't seen. Going back to babyhood- no early speech (but it wasn't "late" either), no lining up of toys or obsession on toys/things, no rigidity, no sensitivities to things (food, clothes), no odd physical behaviors. He didn't read earlier than his peers- and while yes, I did find it odd that in his pre-school class he didn't know anybody's name (except his two friend that he knew before starting pre-school) I now am thinking that has to do more with his lack of ability to do well in large groups. It is true that when we went to the playground, he never really played with other kids...so...I don't know, I suppose that could be a very Autistic red-flag or it could just be his personality. He seems to be the kid who's cool with his few good friends (that he has known/play a lot with) since three (he is now 8). He's not Mr. popularity, but he's not a social outcast either.
Yes, you were awesome in sending me those links, I gotta go back and look at them as I'm always in such a rush, I sort them into my "to do" pile....
School me Auntie, school me.
And on a totally random side note, I'm pretty sure the group Ween is from New Hope and they are so totally awesome. Just a random connection....