That being said, we also knew that hope alone would not be enough. He had not made it through the week of scout camp in June. Scout camp is fun, the teaching atmosphere is relaxed. We knew that if he couldn't do scout camp, there was no way he would be able to do school. We visited our psychiatrist to reconsider some medication to help him out. He started tenex which, at the therapeutic dose made him drowsy and helped him sit through school but did not help him get any work done or cut back on tantrums. Although he was sort of making it through school it wasn't enough for me. Last October we took a trip to Washington DC for dave to attend some meetings and to visit my brother Scott and Dave's parents. The trip was a complete nightmare. It was awful (we loved seeing family though). It was really during that trip that I realized the medication, while sedating him enough to get through a school day was doing NOTHING for him. When I got home from the trip and talked to his teacher about the amount of work he was doing, which had not changed a bit since we started the medicine, we decided to take him off and try something new. This was a turning point.
The second medicine we tried was a stimulant. Also, for those of you who don't have kids on meds, it should be added here that when you start a med and come off a med it is not a one day affair. It takes 2-3 weeks to slowly work up to the therapeutic dose and then another 2-3 weeks of coming off the dose and down to baseline again. A few of the ADHD meds are the kind that you can take one day and then not the next but many are not that way and I believe no dr. should prescribe them to be taken that way. I dumped one dr. who gave us a full dose on the first day. All meds should be raised slowly to therapeutic dose, otherwise you can easily over medicate. Soapbox!
So, we started a stimulant medication, which are the typical medicines used for ADHD kids and are quite successful. IT WAS DISASTROUS! Calvin was super angry and aggressive. one thing that was amazing about it is that he was full of energy. Calvin is pretty lethargic and has no endurance to do things such as sports and even just regular play so it was a nice change to see him with full energy and able to play and keep up with other kids. 3 days on this and we were done. Also by this time he was pretty much done with general education. We had to keep Calvin home from school for a few days while we made some adjustments as he came onto and then off of this stimulant.
About this time we realized that he had no way of surviving the general education setting. I was getting calls and he was getting sent home so often it was completely ridiculous. If he was at school he was on the computer playing whatever he wanted so that the teacher could teach the rest of the class without him being disruptive. It was clear that this wasn't going to work. Dave and I visited all the special ed classes in the district and it was not long after this that we placed him in the ED class in the school district. It almost makes me cry to even write that we put him in that class. It was so awful. I didn't feel good about it when I visited it. I didn't feel good about it when he was there. It was truly a tender mercy that he was only there 3 months.
I used to worry that because the medication changes played such an integral role in his failure in school, that it was poor judgement on my part to change his medication. This was amplified by IEP team members who repeatedly asked why I made the changes and pointed out that the timing of his most severe problems was in line with the medication changes. Looking back I have no regrets. While I'm sure teachers/staff would have loved if I kept him on tenex, so sleepy and dulled that he could sit through class, it didn't help at all his learning or his overall temperament, executive functioning and self control. I don't expect that a single medicine will offer a complete turn around in all of these areas, but tenex did nothing for him. And, knowing what I know now, that he doesn't have ADHD and these were not even the right class of medicines I see I we were for sure right anyway.
It was about this time that we finally were able to see the developmental pediatrician. She was able to look at his medical and behavioral and school history and get a good overview of what was going on. She saw sleep disorder as our main problem. She saw that ADHD was unlikely to be an accurate diagnosis since the medicine was not effective. She put us back on Tenex at a low dose to aid in sleeping through the night. Dr. Gahagan is one of my favorite dr's I have ever worked with. She was gentle and kind (to Calvin) and compassionate (to me).
The rest of this history is documented in our visits to the autism center and other school meetings.
I will write another post about how he moved from district to private special education. At the time I was writing I was focused on finding the right class, not on recording the events so that I'd remember and learn from them.
This post is not what I thought it would be when it started, but I am glad to have this all written out.
The second medicine we tried was a stimulant. Also, for those of you who don't have kids on meds, it should be added here that when you start a med and come off a med it is not a one day affair. It takes 2-3 weeks to slowly work up to the therapeutic dose and then another 2-3 weeks of coming off the dose and down to baseline again. A few of the ADHD meds are the kind that you can take one day and then not the next but many are not that way and I believe no dr. should prescribe them to be taken that way. I dumped one dr. who gave us a full dose on the first day. All meds should be raised slowly to therapeutic dose, otherwise you can easily over medicate. Soapbox!
So, we started a stimulant medication, which are the typical medicines used for ADHD kids and are quite successful. IT WAS DISASTROUS! Calvin was super angry and aggressive. one thing that was amazing about it is that he was full of energy. Calvin is pretty lethargic and has no endurance to do things such as sports and even just regular play so it was a nice change to see him with full energy and able to play and keep up with other kids. 3 days on this and we were done. Also by this time he was pretty much done with general education. We had to keep Calvin home from school for a few days while we made some adjustments as he came onto and then off of this stimulant.
About this time we realized that he had no way of surviving the general education setting. I was getting calls and he was getting sent home so often it was completely ridiculous. If he was at school he was on the computer playing whatever he wanted so that the teacher could teach the rest of the class without him being disruptive. It was clear that this wasn't going to work. Dave and I visited all the special ed classes in the district and it was not long after this that we placed him in the ED class in the school district. It almost makes me cry to even write that we put him in that class. It was so awful. I didn't feel good about it when I visited it. I didn't feel good about it when he was there. It was truly a tender mercy that he was only there 3 months.
I used to worry that because the medication changes played such an integral role in his failure in school, that it was poor judgement on my part to change his medication. This was amplified by IEP team members who repeatedly asked why I made the changes and pointed out that the timing of his most severe problems was in line with the medication changes. Looking back I have no regrets. While I'm sure teachers/staff would have loved if I kept him on tenex, so sleepy and dulled that he could sit through class, it didn't help at all his learning or his overall temperament, executive functioning and self control. I don't expect that a single medicine will offer a complete turn around in all of these areas, but tenex did nothing for him. And, knowing what I know now, that he doesn't have ADHD and these were not even the right class of medicines I see I we were for sure right anyway.
It was about this time that we finally were able to see the developmental pediatrician. She was able to look at his medical and behavioral and school history and get a good overview of what was going on. She saw sleep disorder as our main problem. She saw that ADHD was unlikely to be an accurate diagnosis since the medicine was not effective. She put us back on Tenex at a low dose to aid in sleeping through the night. Dr. Gahagan is one of my favorite dr's I have ever worked with. She was gentle and kind (to Calvin) and compassionate (to me).
The rest of this history is documented in our visits to the autism center and other school meetings.
I will write another post about how he moved from district to private special education. At the time I was writing I was focused on finding the right class, not on recording the events so that I'd remember and learn from them.
This post is not what I thought it would be when it started, but I am glad to have this all written out.
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