Tolerating

Last night marked 5 nights (or 5 doses) of Elavil. As far as I can tell, Jack seems to be tolerating the dose pretty well.. though I think starting him off on 20mg seems like a lot. There's no easing from the lowest (10mg) dose. Just diving right in. We took him back to the lab yesterday morning for more blood work. This time to check blood levels and make sure he's tolerating the medicine, and I also asked the Dr. to check his thyroid levels. Since we pay for the lab work, and the county doesn't, maybe that's why she wasn't hesitant.. but we did mention to her before our concerns, based on Jack's older male cousin having issues around the onset of puberty, so she was fine with at least checking things out. There may be nothing wrong, but at least it gets it out of the way now. We can check back later if things seem like they're going wonky.

He did have a great week at school, though they were only in school for 4 days. Monday morning he had some negative comments and became physically aggressive after getting a new seat in (I presume) the regular classroom. He also refused to work later in the afternoon. I think part of that was he was on his last days of Strattera, and I believe the night before, I had given him the sleep medicine because I had worried that pulling him off of the Strattera would make it more difficult for him to sleep. *I have wondered recently if the Clonidine is the one factor in all of this long stretch of trying new meds that is messing him up. Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants?!

After Sunday night, I have not given him the Clonidine. Tuesday morning he needed some reminders to work, but he got 3's on his behavior chart all the rest of the week. The Intervention Specialist doesn't know if it's because he was excited about the Valentine's Party they had on Thursday (since they had no school on Friday). I was there for the party, and aside from a moment where he became frustrated with the craft they were doing, and then frustrated with the student sitting next to him for shushing him, he was fine. In fact, he was very polite to the girl he claims he is "dating" now. He gave her a coin of some sort, and also the craft that he made. They hugged after each gift, and I tried very hard not to react. I will say that the other girls went "awww" when the two kids hugged. LOL

I'm not sure how we're doing now. I want to get him back into counseling if we're hoping to stay on this med. There's no end to his nasty comments, back-talking, etc.. We may not taking any Sh*t from him, but he still loves trying to dish it out. Oh, it does seem he's a bit more hyper than he was before. It seems like he does bounce around a bit more. In a way I hope that means his metabolism is also a bit faster? LOL Elavil supposedly can pack on the weight, and that's what the Intuniv sure did, slowing him down quite a bit. The change in him is so dramatic that sometimes it just really hits me and makes me sad.