Splat Goes Life.

On the 23rd, I took Jack in for a med check. The Concerta- even with the Intuniv- is not wowing us. Every single day, he's easily annoyed, he takes everything the wrong way, he's grumpy, he's rude.. need I go on? It's not as bad as it has been, and goodness knows it's been pretty bad. It *is* enough to notice, however.. and enough to say to ourselves that a kid with this attitude is not going to make very good friends with either the other students, or the staff, at his new school. So again, we're back to just the Intuniv. He has good days and bad days, like usual. He still gets mad on occasion. Yesterday, as a perfect example, he called his sister "evil" for interrupting her. Then when I called him on it, he gave me the evil eye, while he balled up his fists and tried to puff himself up like a.. I don't even know what kind of animal. I wasn't having it. After he calmed himself down enough for us to talk, we discussed various examp...

So, it's now Thursday. Much to Jack's chagrin, Tuesday has come and gone with no play date, much less a sleep-over. I didn't hear from the mom all week, until Monday night, real late, when she called to tell me that her son backed out of wanting to sleep over. Ok, I did expect that. The trauma/drama only happened a week ago. To a kid, that probably seems like just yesterday. (I feel for him, I really do). Jack was on his way to dreamland when I told him what was happening. In order to get a sense of whether or not he was ok with just a play date, or if he wanted to scrap the plans altogether, I had him sleep on it and get back to me in the morning, when I would get back in touch with the mom. In the morning, he seemed fine with just a play date. We'd have the friend over for an hour, head to the pool, then either come back or another hour of play, or just take him home. I emailed the mom, even suggesting that we could all just meet up at the pool to make it ea...

Jack has been on a combination for about three weeks now, of 18mg Concerta, and 3mg of Intuniv. The doctor suggested that this combination might "hit the sweet spot", since not only do we know that 3mg of Intuniv seems to be the lowest effective dose of that med, but that Jack tolerated the 18mg of Concerta pretty well, when he was on it in 2nd grade. (Ideally, Intuniv is supposed to be used in conjunction with another med.. or so the doctors keep telling me). I wish I was taking such good notes about his behaviors in 2nd grade, when he was just on the Concerta. I do have daily emails from his teacher that I should go back and review.. and I do recall that the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade was pretty decent. All I can say is that this combination either isn't very good, or I don't know what. Jack weighs a lot more now than he did the last time he was on this stuff, so you would think that would help. Not really. Every day.. every. single. day. this kid is ...

Two to three weeks ago, we met up with Savannah's bff (and her mom) at the pool. It was nice, and Jack was actually a good companion for the bff's younger sister. Savannah actually told me that Jack was being "pretty cool".. a rare compliment. After maybe 4 hours or palling around together, the girls asked if Savannah could come over to play, and to spend the night. Kids being kids, they asked this in front of Jack. Being left out, Jack was of course upset, and started getting mad at me for never letting him have sleepovers, etc. This is true that he's never had a friend over to stay the night. I was not thrilled that he was doing this in front of the other girls (and both parents, as the dad later showed up), and I didn't want to entertain his demands/concerns/etc right then and there. When we got home, I had a talk with Savannah about why Jack was upset, and asked how she would feel were the roles reversed. Of course she says she understands.. by the ag...

I got word yesterday that Jack will continue to be eligible for services until the age of 12, when we have to do all of this crap again. Isn't that lovely? LOL Maybe it was the coconut/steak knife incident.. maybe it was the laundry list of complaints from the school (that's my guess). I was seriously resigned to rejection, and beyond willing to appeal. So another 2-3 years of keeping notes and compiling info, to see where things sit for the next "redetermination". Joy.