Friday, January 23, 2009

Being David is hard.

David has been on medication for his ADHD symptoms (again, not technically diagnosed as HAVING ADHD, just the symptoms, due to his age) since last summer. They've made a remarkable difference in his behavior. However, last year they cost $40 a month. The copay was going up to $60, which is part of the reason we decided to go for the cheaper insurance that saves us $127 a month but doesn't cover anything before a deductible. So, we decided to try a generic medication. Which is short acting, staying in his body 4-6 hours. So he takes one at breakfast time, one at lunch time, then by early evening gets totally out of control! Either he has gotten WAY worse since last summer, I've forgotten how bad he was, or the coming down from the medication makes it worse. I'm thinking it's the last possibility.

He started his new meds 19 days ago, and right around that day (I'm not sure exactly because I didn't pay attention) he started really having a hard time going to sleep. Not that bedtime troubles are new, but this is different. He stays up way, way later than Ryan, when before it was both of them keeping each other awake. And he's not jumping around all night, by 9:00 or so he's mostly laying quietly in his bed. And yet he doesn't fall asleep until after 10, frequently 10:30! At 9:48 tonight I went to check on him and found this:


I know it's hard to see, my cell phone doesn't take great pictures in the dark. If you can't tell, it's a big pile of books next to the end of David's bed. He's trying to quietly look at books in his room! It's taken me most of the past 2 weeks to get past being frustrated AT him and be frustrated FOR him. Poor guy can't fall asleep! I know how that feels, and it's miserable! I have a perscription for a controlled-release generic (not sure why they didn't try it first...), but none of the 8 pharmacies I tried have it in stock. So we ordered it and have to wait for Monday. I sure hope they work. Poor little guy!

2 comments:

jaclyn weist said...

Poor boy. :( Lack of sleep isn't fun. Andy recently became afraid of his closet(stemming from Ashley's fear of the hole in her closet - long story) so he would stay up for hours at night - but never tell me he was scared! So he was getting tired and whiny and I didn't know why until Jakob mentioned he's up a lot. SO now the closet thing is done (I think) and Andy is doing better. Hopefully the new generics will help David!

alanna said...

You can disregard this tidbit with no offense, but I have to put a plug in for chiropractic (my hubby's profession).
Have your children ever seen a chiropractor? They can seriously do wonders for a myriad of things. I've had my boys adjusted since birth and Brad has attended ICPA (an international pediatrics seminar) for some time now and learned so many wonderful things for children.
Anyway, sometimes it can be covered by your insurance, but also, there is a chiropractic college near Portland. I think they see kids at the schools for free.
:) Just thought I'd let you know.