So, I put on my big girl panties yesterday and gave the Monkey man his medication.
We had a good day. I wasn’t sure if it was having a small effect or if it was wishful thinking. Duhdee was convinced it was working in the morning when Monkey helped him make coffee and, at one point during the process, made sustained (30 seconds) of eye contact with him. I don’t see how increased eye contact would be a result but….whatever. It was the first time Monkey has ever held eye contact with Duhdee for that long, so Yay! He had a 2nd dose at lunch.
This small dose does not seem to be affecting his appetite, he was a snack monster all day. He was really, really talkative all day long. He was not jumping from one topic to another as quickly. He’d make 2 comments about something rather than just 1. I’m not sure what I expected but it seemed like there were some small improvements. I was still conflicted.
Then the medication wore off and HOLY SHEET batman! He was bouncing, he was running, he was JUMPING ON ME, he was chewing on everything. It was then I realized a few things…
1.) He’d watched videos during the morning and he’d sat still and watched them through to the end vs jumping in place and jumping from video to video.
2.) He had not needed his chewy tube ALL day.
and
3.) Once he went back on to high speed, which in his case is normal, I couldn’t believe that we have survived nearly 6 years living with the Tasmanian Devil and never noticed.
So THIS is why people always say how amazed they are that we can keep up with him. It’s all we’ve ever known so it was always hard to respond to that comment. Now I too am amazed that we’ve kept up with him this long.
So, I guess it’s working but I’m still not truly convinced. Maybe he was coming down with something…I guess we’ll see.
I felt the same way when my daughter went on Zoloft. Wow- was she really that sensitive/ whiney/difficult to calm down? YES, YES, and YES! That’s the one thing I don’t like, you end up with your view of your child being modified. Not good or bad, just having that “break”, and then seeing where they were coming from without the meds. Good to hear that you saw lots of positives on the first day! Congratulations!
Thanks, today I’m not sure what I saw. We were at my parents’ house, he seemed out of sorts a bit and fell apart emotionally after the medication wore off. I just don’t know! I will be interested to see what his teachers think tomorrow.