Plan # ?????

I've lost track of what "plan #" we are on but anyway.....

We saw Dr. T today and after talking about what was happening with Dylan, he said it sounds like the dose we have him on may be too high.  We are reducing his dose by half and should be able to tell by next week if that helps.  If it doesn't, we will need to stop this one and try something different.

Fingers tightly crossed that this a smaller dose works.

It did my heart good today....

As I mentioned in my last few posts, it's been challenging lately with my boy.  The medication changes have been rough but I believe that we will find the right one.  I do believe that he will benefit from them.

Tonight he tested for his yellow belt at martial arts.  Let me say that he is an COMPLETELY different child when he is at martial arts.  We can have a really rough day at home and he gets there and it's like he's in his zone.  He is focus, determined and ready to go.  I love it.  He loves it.  It's SUCH a positive thing for him and I am very thankful for that.

I LOVE this picture!!

Waiting for testing to start....

Basics....

Getting ready for kicks.....this was REALLY funny to watch.  Jason said it best..."it's like rolling a dice!"  Kids going all over! ;-)

 Sparring....D's least favorite but he did good.

Grappling...he likes this a lot more and did really great tonight!

 And what he was MOST looking forward too....breaking his board!

Getting his yellow belt!!

Still so, so tired....

This medication change has been so frustrating for me.  D's last day of Risperdal was a week ago Sunday.  I was so hoping that the sleepiness would get better once we had him off that.  Nope......and I have a bad feeling that we we see Dr. T again in a week, that there's a good possibility he's going to say that this medication isn't going to work either.  Arg.

This is how D's day goes right now.....

Awake EARLY (between 5:30 and 6:00 AM, normally he would get up around 6:45 or 7:15) and hyper as all get out.  He's unable to keep his hands to himself and he doesn't listen.  He's not a kid who will eat breakfast until he's ready and it's not at that early hour so around 7:00 or so he's usually ready to eat.  He HAS to eat a meal with this medication. 

Then by 9:00 AM, he's sleepy.  Very, very sleepy.  Most days he's been falling asleep and will sleep a couple of hours.  If we have something going on, he'll go but let's just say he won't "do" anything.  He's fallen asleep in the front yard, at the park and during therapy.

Once he wakes up, he's groggy for some time.  Around 2:30 PM or so, he starts getting wired, not listening, not keeping his hands to himself, yelling, hitting, and very, very defiant, etc.  And it stays that way until his dinner does (5:30 ish) hits him around 7:00 or so, then he wants to go to bed.

Yeah, I don't think that this is going to work.  How in the world will be function in school?

Sigh....it's just hard to know how well the Risperdal worked in all but one area.  The weight gain was not do good.  So, so hard right now.

So, so tired....

We are on day 5 of Dylan's medication change and it's been hard in a lot of ways.  

He's sooo tired.  Dr T. warned me that the would be but he's so sleepy.  He's okay mid-day but in the morning and evening, he struggles to just stay awake.

We've had a few REALLY major meltdowns that we hadn't seen since we started the Risperdal.  It broke my heart when he had the first one....all because his quesadilla fell apart.  It lasted 25 minutes.  Not good.

His temper has definitely been short.  Things that hadn't been an issue the last couple months have been setting him off.  His focus just seems off.

Fingers crossed that once we have this switch done, we'll get back to a better place.

I just love my boy!

Stomping my feet with my hands on my hips....

And saying, no yelling, 

"IT'S NOT FAIR!"

And quite frankly, I don't care if I sound like a 5 year old right now. 

(and I'm sure that my serious lack of sleep is playing a part of me just not caring what I sound like right now!)

Dylan has his appointment this morning with Dr. T. (child psych).  I went into it feeling really good and hopeful that MAYBE we wouldn't have to keep going monthly since things have been going so great.  The Risperidone that we started Dylan on a couple of months ago has been working GREAT and we've been so excited and very relieved to see the positive changes happening.  He's been handling situations with ease that before would have been a challenge.  He handled staying 4 nights with my parent while we are at Mayo Clinic with Kira and did fabulous.

The downfall of the medicine is that it makes me hungry......all.the.time.  I felt like we were doing a pretty good job of offering healthy options....lots of veggies.  We made a lot of changes and I was really feeling like we were handling it well.

Today we got there, he weighed Dylan and as we were talking he was looking at his growth curve and then it happened.....he moved his computer over by me and I knew what was coming or at least I thought I did.  I was NOT expecting to see a 10 pound weight gain in 2 months. (this is where I was working hard to keep the tears from falling because I KNEW what was coming).  Yep, we have to stop the Risperidone.  Dr. T. knew I was fighting tears and apologized but I knew where he was coming from and I agree that it's too much of a weight gain but IT'S NOT FAIR.

We talked about our options and agreed that we didn't want to wean off one medication before starting another because we know how D is with no meds at all. We have a plan that will hopefully work well.  

It's frustrating for me but even looking past how I am feeling, I want to do everything I can to make sure that Dylan continues to feel good about himself and all the great things that are happening with him right now.  I am hoping that he will breeze through this change with little problem.  I want him to continue to have all the successes that he has been.  Dr. T stressed that it could be tricky to find another med that will be AS effective as the Risperidone was but he's committed to do everything he can to make the best choices possible for D.

So that's where we are at.....I'm trying hard to not stomp my feet with my hands on my hips and yell "it's not fair" but it's hard today.  Really, really hard.........

I, Cori, vow to NEVER.....

Publicly discuss when Dylan has a  really, really good day because when I do, all holy heck breaks loose within hours.

WOW!  The last couple days have been rough.  Hoping it's just the change in schedules with school coming to an end, being outside a lot or something that he will adjust to soon because I'm close to losing it! :-)  Not really but it's rough on all of us when we have days with lots  of tantrums and hitting.

On an upside, his IEP is finally final.  The meeting was interesting and I had an advocate come with me.  It was extremely helpful to have her there.  In the end, the changes that we wanted made were made and most of the team agreed that they were reasonable changed.  We will meeting in November to look at his services and see if we can reduce anywhere.  I would love for him not need as many services once he's adjusted.  Time will tell.

FINALLY FINAL!

Dylan's IEP has been finalized!

FINALLY!