ADHD - How it's Going

I realized that I haven't yet posted about Dylan's medication for his recently-diagnosed ADHD. Wanted to share.

The pills in the above picture are in a baggy, because when I took that picture, school was still in session, and the school nurse requires me to bring Dylan's pills to her in the prescription bottle. So our pills for home purposes were stored in this handy baggy.

Let me just pause to let you know that I forgot to take my heartburn medication today. I just took it and am waiting in agony for the stabbing feeling to go away.... Arghhhhh....

So anyways. Dylan was prescribed the generic form of Ritalin. We wanted to do extended-release Ritalin (so that Dylan didn't have to go to the nurse's office at lunchtime every day), but our insurance wouldn't cover it, so he did the nurse's office thing during the school year. And it really didn't seem to bug him to do that. If he forgot, she went and got him. No biggie.

There are sooo many hoops to jump through when you're dealing with "controlled substances" like this. It's not like a normal medication, where, if you're out, you call the pharmacy and have them fill up a new bottle for you to pick up at your leisure. With this stuff, when you run out, you have to physically go in to the doctor's office and have him give you a written prescription to then physically take to the pharmacy. Every single month. I have to show the pharmacy my driver's license every time I pick the medication up, too. Pretty intense stuff.

People would ask me all the time how Dylan was doing, but I honestly couldn't tell how he was doing while school was in session. He took his morning pills and caught the bus. By the time he came home at 3:30 in the afternoon, his lunchtime pill had worn off and he was still the same naughty, in-your-face, yelling, tazmanian devil tornado man. I was usually working all day on Saturdays, and then on Sundays, I would sleep in, and then we would go to church. So I got very little observation time on the weekends. He seemed calm during the one hour of church when I saw him, but then after church, his pills had worn off and he was back to normal naughtiness.

I did keep up with Dyl's first grade teacher, though. We tried the smallest dosage at the very first, and she felt like it helped a little bit. For example, he wasn't getting out of his chair as often as he used to. But she said he was still yelling incessantly. I told this to our doc, so he upped Dyl's dosage a little bit, and his teacher raved about it. She felt like it was the perfect dosage. She had SEVEN ADHD kids this year. SEVEN. Some of the kids' parents refused to try medication or behavioral counseling or anything. Some of the kids were taking too much medication and falling asleep all day long in class. She felt that the dosage we had Dylan on was perfect. He was still participating and actively engaged in classwork, but not causing as many disruptions to others.

I asked Dyl's doc if we could do a small pill for after school, just so that we could feel like we were getting some kind of benefit at home, and he said we could give him half a pill at that point. The whole idea behind exploring this medication was because I wanted to see our home life improve. I wanted more peace. Less frustration. Less storminess. And I knew that Dylan was mainly the center of the storms. The half pill seemed to help, and it wasn't affecting his sleep at all - that's a common side effect of this stuff - difficulty falling asleep. So far, Dylan seems to be doing alright with that.

Now that school is out, I'm able to see Dylan all day long with this medication inside of him, and I have to say that I LIKE it. A LOT. He's Pleasant Dylan. The Dylan I saw sometimes and really liked. He likes the same stuff, he says the same kinds of things. He's just not bouncing off the walls. He doesn't argue as much, and he's more obedient. He doesn't seem tired or lethargic or anything.

One thing that is weird is that he doesn't care as much about playing as he used to. For the last two summers, he used to play outside with friends from the second he got up in the morning until it turned dark. Now, he doesn't really feel like it. He wants to play inside with his sister, which is really weird. I limit his TV-watching to one hour per day, and his computer usage to one hour per day, and after he's done those two things, he just sits and plays with Sadie. There have been times when the nappy neighbors have come over and asked him to play, and he says, "No, I just really don't want to." Sometimes he will go out and play, but sometimes he just doesn't wanna. And I'm not sure what to do about it. Part of me is fine with it. If he doesn't want to, he doesn't want to. And I can't stand the nappy neighbors. But the other part of me worries about it and wants him to be running out in the sun.

Ben has suggested that we take Dylan off medication during the summer, but I'm just... not willing to do that. Peace in my home is my main motivation. Especially while I'm so pregnant and uncomfortable and sick. I need Calm Dylan right now. So desperately. So I don't know. Should I, like, force him to go out and play??? Like I said, he doesn't always say no when kids come to ask to play, but he says no like half the time. I mean, the kid has free agency, right?? It's a conundrum for me. Perhaps I should arrange more playdates.

The second thing that's a little disconcerting is Dylan's general frowniness lately. Like me, Dylan's relaxed face is a frown. People give me so much crap about how I frown when I'm relaxed. That's just the way my face works. Same with Dyls. So sometimes, he'll be sitting in church next to me, listening to the speaker and just frowning. I'll nudge him and whisper, "Are you sad, honey?"

"Nope."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm just normal."

"Okay..."

So that's been a little weird, too. But on the whole, as far as Ritalin goes, I say two thumbs wayyyy up.