Baby Steps...

Today has been a difficult day. I had planned my day out and had decided to clean the house. It is in desperate need of some attention! I started in the playroom...while the girls were out of town Logan played in there a lot to keep himself busy. All of the toy bins were mixed up and things were strewn about. It was definitely not organized. I like the toys to be organized and accessible so that Logan knows where to find the pieces and things aren't so chaotic. He just plays better when things are nice and neat.

During my time cleaning out the playroom Logan was feeling rather grouchy. I had asked him to help pick up some of the toys...but he was more upset that I was changing things around. I let the idea of him helping me organize go and his sister volunteered to help me out. I had asked her to put away a little horse in its container when he came running over and slammed the lid to the container down on her three fingers. It was a complete disaster.

It's times like this that I just want to scream! She did nothing to deserve that from him, but yet it is so impulsive that he honestly has no control over it. I am not making excuses for him and he did get a timeout. However, I was sooooo frustrated! This got me thinking back to our "plan" for him. What is the best plan?! I don't really know. All I know is that Kindergarten is coming awful fast... What do we do when he has been weaned off of all medicine?! What are the appropriate steps to take?!

While still pondering all of this I decided to go out and get the mail. When I grabbed the mail I received a dictation from Dr. D. (the original neuropsychologist) that Logan's new behavior-therapist had had sent to me. It was the original dictation from January 2011. She wanted me to re-read what his dictation had specified. At that time Logan was 4 1/2 years old and too young for formal testing. He didn't think that he fit under the autism spectrum because he was able to make eye contact and hold a conversation. He did state that socially he was "still quite a bit behind" and "quite impulsive." He also stated that he wanted to stay involved with this case and do testing if the interventions were not sucessful.

I had one of those "A-Ha" mommy moments. A year and a half later with lots of documentation from Dr.B and also having been inpatient with all episodes documented, I think Dr. D will have a better idea of what is going on and what approach we will need to take. I decided to call and ask if they would be able to do the testing now and the nurse assured me that he will do the testing.

At this point I feel that I have made the right decision and am praying that Dr. B (his current psych that regulates his meds) will feel okay with this, too. We see her on Friday and I am going to discuss this with her as well, and make sure she is on board. His appointment with Dr. D is set for August 13th and school starts August 23ish?! I am still freaking out about that. However, I think this is one more step in the right direction...as long as this process may take. It would be soooo much easier if I could just kidnap the doctor for a day or two, bring him to my house and on an outting or two, have him observe all of the behavior and then he could be like "this is what's wrong and this is how we fix it" but that will never happen! As for right now I think I have made the right decision. August 13th cannot come soon enough!!!

Thank you for catching up!

Autumn

New Med...

Our pediatrician has been regulating Logan's medications for over a year now. About a month ago we went back to our ped because Logan's aggression has been getting worse by the day/week and we are very concerned. We explained to the ped that Logan has started to bite himself and others (including myself) on a regular basis, the hitting and kicking have increased, and life in our house has been pretty hairy lately. Dr.T decided to try him on Adderall XR 5 mg. We gave it 3 weeks before we threw in the towel. I guess increased anger and aggression is a common side effect with Adderall in ADHD children that have an aggressive demeanor. It was bad! So we made an appointment with a child behavioral psychiatrist.

The psychiatrist, Dr. B, seemed pretty right on with her train of thought and her analyzation of Logan. She talked with him, and then with myself, and then she explained what she thought he might have going on. She thinks that on top of the ADHD there is also the possibility of a mood disorder such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) or Bipolar Disorder...she is NOT labeling him with one of these, but says that this is a possibility. She is going to treat him for a mood disorder and ADHD. She is taking somewhat of a different approach with the medications. She is increasing his Risperdal by .5 mg in the evening so that he will be at a steady dose throughout the entire day; it was 1 mg in am and .5 mg pm previously and now it will be 1 mg am and 1 mg pm. She also prescribed a medication called Trileptal (which is normally used in seizure patients...but has been successfully used as a "mood stabilizer" in children with severe mood disorders).

Today has been his first full day of being on the medication... He is VERY crabby, cranky, and TIRED. Luckily I knew what to expect... I knew that the combo of these 2 meds would make him a little tired initially...and when he is tired...he is a GROUCH (aren't we all?!?!). So we will take each day one day at a time.

Praying that the medications will help him to control his anger, or at least bring him to a level where we can intervene and help redirect him more easily. I want him to know more than anything that we love him! This has been a LONG journey and I am sure we still have a LONG journey yet to travel, but as long as we have prayer...I think we will be good! Trying to stay optimistic! :)

Thanks for taking the time to keep updated!

Autumn