Weekend observations

Well after 2 days of the new medication I am definitely feeling I have made the right decision and I'm feeling I really should have followed my gut months ago and switched earlier. Although Orion is still a little hyperactive on this dosage, I know that we can go up from the 18mg and I am betting that's exactly what we will be doing. I have written a note to his homeroom teacher requesting that she and the other teachers please report to me his distraction level at school so that I can know if he is just letting loose at home and in reality is able to control himself on this dosage. He seemed to have some level of distractability this past weekend even though he was medicated, but the changes to his attitude and emotional health were what has me sold that this is the right decision for him.

Previously, if he was distracted from a task and you reminded him what he was supposed to be doing, you would have found yourself getting screamed at and then he would melt down, call himself stupid and he would fall apart emotionally. He was constantly angry and verbally abusive to the extent that you wanted to send him to his room and close the door and not even be around him. It broke my heart, but he was just too much to deal with. It was like a teenager on steroids! He treated me and  his father like he hated us and treated the dog even worse. But now, on this new medication, when you point out that he is off task you get nothing but an "I'm sorry" and then right back to what he was supposed to be doing. There is no more fighting, no more yelling, and I am happy to spend tons of time around my child. I am eager to watch him play, laugh and smile. I can see and feel his happiness and it's a wonderful thing. On the adderall he told me he could not feel happy, after just 2 days on the Concerta he says "It's nice to feel happy again"  I feel like this is almost a miracle drug and the best part is hubby agreeing that I did indeed do the right thing and that perhaps he really should have listened to me months ago when I told him the adderall was messing with the boys emotions and that we needed to switch medications. I love it when I get an "I told you so" Just goes to prove (yet again) that mommy gut is always right and people (aka hubby)  just need to respect that! Mom truly does know what she's talking about when it comes to the child so shut up and listen...geez life would be so much easier if people (again aka hubby) would just let me do what I do best....be a great mother to my boy!

We're switching

Yesterday I mentioned Orion's recent meltdown and confession that he could not feel happy on the Adderall XR. I took him in to see the doctor yesterday afternoon and the doctor agreed with me that something was very wrong. I told him that my "mommy gut" was telling me that we needed a change and he says to me "a change or stop?" He was thinking that maybe we should consider stopping all meds for awhile and see what happens...I had to laugh! There is no way in hell that child could go to school without his meds, nope, no way no how! Those poor teachers lol I can barely handle his inability to pay attention and I can only imagine how challenging that would be when you have 20 other kids to motivate as well. I emphasized a change, not a stop.

We are going to switch him to Concerta 18mg to start and go from there. The doctor says that in general if Adderall doesn't work then Concerta does. They both are stimulants to treat ADHD but they work a little differently in how they effect the brain chemicals. Hopefully this is what Orion needs. I can't have my little boy being depressed all the time, I can't have him angry and verbally abusive all the time. I can't have him lose friends again because he is so hard to tolerate when he takes the meds but so impossible when he isn't on meds. I won't lie, I am scared and worried about the switch. Change is scary in general and when it comes to something like this it seems even scarier! I worry that he will suffer even worse side effects than he had on the adderall, I worry that he won't sleep or eat or that he will spiral into a deep depression. I have read that the risk of suicide while on Concerta is much higher, but perhaps those people were just on the wrong meds. Perhaps all stimulants will have these side effects with Orion and he will just have to learn to deal with it or deal with the ADHD. There are so many unknowns and I hate unknowns when it comes to my kid. 

We will start the concerta today and see what happens....wish us luck!

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Just a side note that my friend Angel called yesterday, her results came back normal, just a fibrous cyst and not anything to worry about! THANK GOODNESS!

Med Check today

Took Orion to the doctors for his med check. He has to go every 4 months to watch his weight and height. He moved up to 30mg of the Adderall XR and therefore he needs to be watched very closely! Orion has always been very low in his weight in general. He never even got out of the 10th percentile on the charts until he hit 5 years old and even then he only went up to 25th percentile. When I knew I was going to put him on meds I fed him lots and lots of junk so he would gain weight. I let him eat as much as he wanted, when he wanted to, so that when he went on the meds he would only lose the fat that I put on him and not drop into a dangerous level...I knew that one of the biggest side effect of the meds was weightloss.

He actually went way up in weight, but very shortly after going on meds he dropped down. Now we fight to maintain a good weight and the more medication he takes, the harder it is to maintain a healthy weight. When he sprouts up like this it's even worse because he'll appear to be nothing but skin and bones. That's what he looks like right now, nothing but skin and bones! The doctor is a little concerned about the fact that he went up in height but down in weight since moving up to the 30 mg but since he's doing so well in school and socially he wants to give us another 4 months to gain that pound back! Ideally Orion should gain 4 to 5 pounds a year according to the doctor, not lose weight so if he doesn't get that back we will have to adjust the meds, switch to something different or find some other solution to the ADHD problem.....trust me I will be working very hard to fatten this kid up and get that pound back!

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