Ifferjenn Independent

Sometimes Ethan just impresses the hell out of me. This is how he described his day today, after starting adderall:

The bad went down and the good went up. Like the part of my brain that wants to go tiptoe didn’t have to fight with the bad part. There was more space for it to be good.

All right, the title may be misleading, as I have mentioned ADHD before. But today was our first visit with the doctor, and a first diagnosis. Ethan’s been having trouble in school since…oh…day care, but things have gotten worse since he’s expected to sit and learn things all day. His general distraction really got in the way of anyone in class accomplishing anything, so by the end of November, I asked his teacher to have the guidance counselor observe him and give his point of view. Things got progressively worse, and by the time we got back to school in January, I also found out that the guidance counselor had never observed him. WTF?

I met with his teacher, again, but also met with the principal and e-mailed the district’s Special Education Director. The Special Ed Director got right back to me, and his principal promised to set up a team meeting to evaluate Ethan’s behavior and see if he needs additional assistance. I also scheduled this appointment with his pediatrician, just in case. And, luckily, the guidance counselor also had a chance to meet with Ethan, and agrees he definitely has some impulse control problems, and should be talking with Ethan more.

At any rate, Ethan’s dad and I both filled out parent checklists, and I did get a teacher checklist back from his teacher. The pediatrician and I talked about Ethan’s symptoms, went over the checklists, and Ethan himself gave the final bit for a diagnosis. (Ethan describes his lack of focus due to, “His brain making too much noise.” Interestingly, I have the same problem…maybe it might be worth looking into for myself…)

We discussed whether or not to have Ethan take medication, since he is all of 6 years old. The pediatrician was glad to hear that I’m hesitant to commit to long-term medication (as are all of Ethan’s other adults), so the plan right now is this: We’re starting on adderal at the lowest dose to see what it does for him. With any luck, medications will affect him the way they affect me (greatly), so we can stick with that. Once we get the dosage figured out, we’ll also keep it just for school days, so he has that added help. And, of course, we’ll supplement it with some talk therapy as well. Because, as the pediatrician pointed out, not all of Ethan’s behavior can be chalked up to ADHD, and even I’ll say that having your parents get divorced must make you a little angry.

So I think overall, it will help. We shall see, and keep our fingers crossed!