Autism, Aspergers, Rob Gorski,Special Needs Parenting, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Fibromyalgia,

Tag Archive: adhd

Oct 20 2012

The #ADHD Experiment: The addition of a maintenance dose

It’s officially been a week since Elliott began him #ADHD medication.  After speaking with his doctor, we have decided to add a second dose everyday.  This is known as a maintenance dose.

Basically, #ADHD medications don’t last very long in the body and in Elliott’s case, they ware off by about 3pm.

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The way that is address is by adding an additional dose to be taken just prior to the first dose waring off.  Typically, this second or maintenance dose is half of the first dose. 

All this does is help to prolong the positive affects of the medication so that Elliott can derive the benefits for the rest of the day. 

So far,  everything is working really,  really well. 

He’s much more relaxed and focused.  He seems happier and more at peace as well.

It really does seem that #ADHD was a large part of his struggles.  There is of course,  still a great deal of #anxiety but it does seem to be more manageable or him right now.

After consulting with his doctors,  we are going to let things ride out for another two weeks and reevaluate things with both the #ADHD and the #anxiety at that time. That really does seem like a solid plan and Lizze and I are comfortable with it. 

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/10/20/the-adhd-experiment-the-addition-of-a-maintenance-dose/

Oct 16 2012

The #ADHD Experiment: Day 4

Elliott has been on his #ADHD medications for exactly 4 days now.  Even at the low dose, he’s benefiting from it.

Obviously, he’s not really any less anxious but he’s more relaxed, at least physically.

He’s not bouncing off the walls until after the meds ware off, in the late afternoon.  He does seem to be happier and that feels good, not only for him but for me as his father.

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The next step is to discuss possibly adding a maintenance dose.  So instead of taking one dose, we split it up, morning and afternoon. 

We still have to attack the anxiety but progress is progress and I’m so incredibly thankful that this is helping him.  As I mentioned before, I try to avoid the names of the medications simply because of where we live. 

I’m willing get to discuss details in private if you have questions.  Simply send me a message and I’ll get back to you.  :-)

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/10/16/the-adhd-experiment-day-4/

Oct 15 2012

Breakdown

All I can say is that today has gone down the drain.  I can only assume that there is a full moon that I don’t know about. 

Bella has lost her mind completely. She’s peed I the house, not once but twice.  She also chewed through the cord on my compressor as well.  The second time she peed, she destroyed our couch.  It was on its last leg anyway but still.

Emmett has been in rare form as well. There is absolutely no pleasing him today. Lizze tried to make him hot chocolate but it was never good enough. 

She remade it countless times to try and please him but it was no use. 

I hung out with Emmett for most of the day.  I told Lizze to take a nap while Emmett and I spent so time together.

He of course, never fell asleep.  He did however watch like 6 episodes of My Big Big Friends.  I’ll be really honest, I hate that friggin show.  I hate more now than I did yesterday.  However, it did stop the screaming so that’s a positive. 

However, after awhile, I think I honestly preferred the screaming. :-(

Lizze is on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown and I don’t know how to help her.  Well, that’s not totally true.  I do know how to help her but we can’t get him into treatment just yet. 

We will be meeting with her therapist in the morning to try and figure something out.  My heart breaks for her and she’s in an impossible position.  Gavin just doesn’t let up on her and relentlessly targets her.  Sometimes it’s more aggressive and other times he makes her feel like she’s losing her mind.

He’s very, very good. 

I feel that we have reached a point that is without any wiggle room.  Something needs to give and give ASAP.

Unfortunately, there are very few options for families such as mine.  We may have to explore other, even temporary options. 

I truly hate to say this and it crushes my heart just to do so, but Gavin has become a catalyst, causing extreme levels of unrest, turmoil and pain.

He needs help and so do we.  :-(

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/10/15/breakdown/

Oct 15 2012

Manic Monday: What’s on the agenda

It’s just another manic Monday here at the Lost and Tired house. However, there isn’t actually much on the agenda today.

The boys have school and I have an article deadline to meet. However,  I think that’s actually it.

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We don’t have slow days very often so I totally embrace them when they happen to come around.

I’m hoping to have our phone situation with @Sprint fixed today as well.  My second replacement is scheduled to arrive in a few hours.

What’s your Monday looking like today? I hope that it’s manageable at least. 

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/10/15/manic-monday-whats-on-the-agenda/

Oct 14 2012

The future of The #Autism Help Forums

You may have noticed that The #Autism Help Forums are down.  Unfortunately, the database didn’t survive the server migration. 

I’m pretty upset about this and I’m truly sorry that this happened. 

However, I will be rebuilding the forums and will simply start over.  Like many of you I don’t relish the idea of starting over again but I’m going to use this as an opportunity to learn from my mistakes and make The #Autism Help Forums even better, this time around. 

I would also like to announce that TapaTalk has agreed to sponsor the forums and provide a custom mobile forum app. 

This is huge and will make things so much more accessible from your mobile device.

Please be patient and I will get everything back up and running in the near future. 

Thank you for your understanding and patience during this time of transition.  :-)

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/10/14/the-future-of-the-autism-help-forums/

Oct 14 2012

The verge of collapse

Gavin’s arrived home a little while ago.  He had a good time and has been on his best behavior since yesterday morning. 

You may remember that huge tantrum he threw because he overheard part of a conversation between Lizze and myself. This took place Friday afternoon and after the tantrum he threw, we weren’t going to let him go to Grangmas this weekend. 

Having said that, and at the risk of sounding like a bad parent, not allowing him to go was more of a punishment for us.

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We’re at the point where we need him to out of the house as often as possible. Sending him, regardless of his behavior has become the lesser of two evils.

However, this means that we can’t use not going to Grandma’s house as a punishment for his behavior.

Luckily, Gavin was well behaved Saturday morning and so as far as he’s concerned, we were rewarding his good choices by allowing him to go.

Living with a child that has RAD is beyond exhaustive and almost impossible to describe.  It’s so much easier to believe that Gavin is a victim in all of this than it is to realize that he’s not. 

Speaking for myself,  it’s exhausting trying to help people understand just how serious this is and just how far gone Lizze and I both are.  It’s not easily understood that my family is on the verge of collapse.

Gavin thrives on the chaos he creates in the house.  That same chaos is destroying the rest of us, especially Lizze. 

In all the years I’ve known her, I’ve never seen her like this.  She simply can’t take anymore of what Gavin is doing.  I’m new to this whole RAD thing,  but I know that the mother is typically the target.  I don’t understand why that is because Lizze has done nothing but sacrifice for him and love him unconditionally. 

Why is it that he targets her?

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/10/14/the-verge-of-collapse/

Oct 13 2012

The ADHD Experiment: 8 hours later

Elliott has officially begun medication to weed out his ADHD symptoms.  We are about 8 hours in and so far so good.  ADHD medications are very fast acting meaning that they begin working almost immediately.

It looks as though Elliott may have ADHD.  We have noticed a pretty significant change since this morning. 

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He’s still anxious and full of worry, which is to be expected since we haven’t gotten to the anxiety yet. 

However, he’s much calmer.  I keep asking him if he’s alright because I’m so used to him literally bouncing off of everything in sight.

Instead, he’s actually just sitting down and even using his walking feet. 

Our doctor explained to us that if it’s going to work, we’ll see a significant change the first day.  At this point in the game, I would say that we have seen the improvements.  Although, I would like to see this over the next couple of days. 

We report back to the doctor on Monday and let him known what we saw.

I hate the idea of him being on medication but if it helps him to improve the quality of his life, than so be it. 

Today’s dose should be wearing off pretty soon and I’m hoping that we see a change because that would be a great indicator that the meds work for him.

Fingers crossed……..

This was posted via WordPress for Android, courtesy of Samsung’s Galaxy S III. Please forgive any typos. I do know how to spell but auto-correct hate me.

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Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/10/13/the-adhd-experiment-8-hours-later/

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