Adventures in ADHD - Installment 3

After 4 days of trying 10mg of the Metadate, we upgraded Styles to 20mg because the 10mg was doing nothing but causing him to have a difficult time getting to sleep at night. Yesterday was the first day of 20mg. Styles and I went to my Dr. office at 10:30 and had to wait for an hour before being called back into a room. He was still VERY talkative but did seem able to sit relatively still which was a nice reprieve from his constant fidgeting. I found a good book and a few "Family Fun" magazines for him to read and his mouth stopped moving, (no big deal as he loves to read). When we left, I took him to Chik-Fil-A as a reward for having been such a good boy during the very long doctor's appointment. He ate an entire chicken sandwich and his fruit. I was very proud of him!

When we got home from Chik-Fil-A, we turned the TV on so I could work. He talked to me quite a bit but he was using an "inside voice" that I hadn't heard in...um...ever. Even he noticed that he was being more quiet and told me that he must have found his "inside voice" at the doctor's office. It was a GREAT change from his incessant yell-talking. He seemed less fidgety but it is so difficult to tell at home because he is easily captivated by the television, a book and his DS. He did sit down for a couple of hours and worked on excavating a dinosaur skeleton out of a kit that he got. He was very excited to get the bones out but became VERY upset when the bones would not stay together when they came out. We dealt with tears for about 10 minutes until Kyle got home and luckily, his presence seemed to make things all better.

We sat down for dinner and Styles ate THREE tacos (I could only eat two). He didn't have a snack yesterday between lunch and dinner but I was glad that the medicine didn't seem to hurt his appetite. Around dinner time, his yell-talking seemed to come back but again, it could have been because of the return of the father figure and his excitement to see him. But maybe it was the medicine.

When Styles went to bed, he came out once to tell us to turn the TV down. The night before, Kyle confided in me that he used to have a really hard time going to bed too because after the medicine wore off, the energy that it squelched during the day was released. He said that when he was young he used to count to 47 and then turn over, then count to 47 again and turn over and count to 47 again and turn over, until he fell asleep. Kyle went to tuck Styles back into bed and Styles confided in him that this week, instead of counting sheep to fall asleep, he has been counting fish. My eyes nearly flooded when he came out and told me this. I hate that we are having to trade one problem for another but on the other hand, which is the lesser of two evils? And I am so proud of my little man for already coming up with a coping mechanism for dealing with his inability to get to sleep quickly like "old times".

Today is day 2 of the 20mg of medicine and again, it will be difficult to tell whether or not it is doing anything because he will be going to his friend's house for the day.

Thank you for following up with us - the support certainly helps to make the journey easier.