Coming home today? | ADHD Information

It has been 9 days now and I think my son should be discharged from the hospital today. I definitely have some mixed emotions about it though. All of my fears came true. My son's behavior there has been good, they haven't seen any aggression or violence and I think he has only been oppositional once or twice. Therefore they can't diagnose or treat anything they can't see. From what it sounds like he will be coming home with a diagnosis of mild ADHD and anxiety. They have chosen not to treat the anxiety because of his age so we are left trying to cope. They took him off all meds for 5 days and observed him and evaluated him. They did give him benadryl every night so he would sleep. Then wednesday they started him back on his adderall at half of the dosage he was on before. He was really sleepy all morning, ended up taking a nap, told them he didn't want to see us and got really depressed in the evening and refused to eat. We were NOT happy with those results, and were ready to pull him back off of it. Yesterday though he seemed way better, like nothing was ever wrong. We discussed the possibility of the rebound in the evening causing issues so they started an afternoon dose of short acting adderall and he did awesome! So as long as all goes well he should be able to come home. I am worried though that being back on the adderall in the home environment that we will be exactly where we started from, he was on just the adderall from august until december last year and we had problems. That is why his pdoc added the anti-psychotic. They did recommend a behavioral therapy where the person comes to your house and watches your interactions with your child and develops very specific and detailed plans on how to intervene to keep things from getting out of control. The psychiatrist that was working with him said that without that behavioral therapy he thinks we will likely have issues again and he could wind right back up in the hospital. I really don't feel like we accomplished anything at all. I am really happy that he is off the seroquel now though, I do think that was causing a LOT worse behavior. We will see how it all goes. We have an appt monday with pdoc too so she can review everything that they said/did. The hospital said that on the adderall my son is the "perfect student" he scored better on the ADHD rating scale on meds than the doc said any "normal" person could score. I gotta run. I will update you all more when I can. I want them to teach me how and what to do. My son is different when he no's someone is there watching. I agree sheri kids are different with different people and environments.  I hear great stuff about this also. Do they do adults also? I need help with frustiration issue when it doesn't click for me. RN   i hope everything works out for you when your son gets home...i agree that a behavioral therapy would be good... we have one come to our home once a week and she has witness dillons behavior..i truly beleive that dillon would behavior different in her office.. i wish you luck..please keep us posted.. I agree with the mom above. I hate when they don't see the behavior. If not, they certainly can't get a read on the child or an accurate diagnosis. Videotaping is good if the child is way out of control. Unlikely he only has ADHD if he needed hospitalization. I'd tape his next meltdown. I'm not saying he has bipolar, but bipolar kids are often ablet o maintain well away from home, but they lose it once they're back with those they know love them. As time goes on, if bipolar isn't treated, they lose that ability to selectively behave and tend to act out everywhere. I know. I did. I have bipolar. Trust me, no adult has a pass when raging, and I raged until on the right meds. Hope you sort it all out. To the mom above, bipolar kids and adults cycle, therefore they can have good days or weeks only to totally crash to smithereens again. They MUST stay on the mood stabilizer, even when in a good phase, or they will lose it agian and could hurt themselves or break the law when not stablized. Meds for bipolar are mandatory for a rich, happy life. I've had it both ways. I'll take the meds all the time rather than the breakdowns without. Adderrall and any stim will make a child or adult with bipolar worse so get another opinion if you're not happy with the ones you already have. Even hospitals screw up.OlderMom38765.5013194444

mom---

This really isn't a good thing--you know! You will need to video tape his behavior after you get home or hope that he shows his stuff for this behavioral person when they are there.

It sounds like something Jacob would do. He does---at school. Thankfully we are on a good cycle right now. He "flipped" his switch last weekend and is doing well at home. We had a pdoc appt this week and I just don't know what to do. He left it up to me as to whether I put him back on lithium or not. Right now----he is good--so I don't want to. Too bad lithium isn't a as needed drug. He still has his moments of anger and impulsiveness---but I can handle it. It's not his everyday, all day irritability.

For you--I would be worried about the adderall. But he did do OK on it--right? But now it will be by itself without an AP. Are you charting his moods and cycles?

Hopefully one of these days I will get back on chat. All the kids have had the stomach bug--and it's lasting days.

 

Holly

Jacob--6y bipolar/ADHD, anxiety, poss. aspergers

I hope things work out with him home. I can totally understand your apprehension about it. I would also say to document his moods and cycles. Hopefully, things are peaceful for you for a while. Keep us posted.

momoftwoboyz,

I'm glad he's comeing home I know you missed him, but I also know you have your worries about him comeing home also.  I told my son's teacher one time can you come home with me because my son was a whole different person in the classroom then he was at home. 

momoftwoboyz, how is your son since he came home? i hope he is doing better...please keep us posted.. 

momoftwo,

you said that you think some of his behavior was caused by meds? I hope he is doing well.  It seems as if things get so complicated when more that one med is involved.

I will keep your son in my prayers.  In the hospital what they mostly saw was the honeymoon stage as well as he knew if he lost it the consequences are different than at home.  Maybe the med adjustment will work and lets keep this on the positive side.If you get a camera - many of them have a movie mode
with sound - e.g. the Kodak 5 Megpixals camera
are quite inexpensive. But there are many others.You can read some camera reviews:-

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Digital Camera Reviews and News: digital camera reviews, articles and discussion
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are two I like.}
You can use these to record the behaviour.
If you tell him that you are going to record
him actions ans he - is 'good' while you have the
camera on then you have a way of modifing his
behaviour - and isn't that what you want.
Even if the modification is not complet - it is a step in the right direction and you might reward him for the
improvement.
Gradually he will inprove more as the erword ans praise
will steer him action in that direction.

Hi Mom, sorry he didn't show his true colors in the hospital -- must be very frustrating to you!  I hope everything goes well at home, but I certainly understand your apprehension.  I agree with Holly and Stepmom that you should document everything you observe at home.  We're keeping mood charts for both our BPers, and it's been helpful to the pdocs.  Good luck.  You continue to be in my thoughts and prayers.

 

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things continue to be nutty around my house. My son came home friday from the hospital, we immediately packed up and drove up to the mountains with him and spent the long holiday weekend playing in the snow with the kids and my brother and parents. Dylan had a lot of anxiety(worrying the mountain was a volcano so it was going to explode and we would all die) and depression. He was even napping, something he NEVER does, he used to always be up, even in the middle of the night. We are now working on the new issues with the doc. He really didn't want to come home from the hospital, he was very anxious about it and was crying and saying he wanted to stay. He really didn't want to go back to school this week either, but has seemed to do okay since he's been back. His dad has to return to Japan sunday so we will see how he does with that adjustment, I expect things will turn south really quick in a couple weeks, it tends to be pretty typical for him to freak out about 2 weeks later so we have all our therapy/pdoc appts set up for that time frame. We have the in home behavor therapist starting to come tomorrow so we'll see how that goes. I am really unhappy with the results of the hospitalization and I wilL DEFINITELY be taping behaviors as they pop up. I got a new video camera for christmas and just need to get a tape for it. That's about it for now. I haven't been around much because as soon as we got back from our trip to the mountain I found out my grandma is doing really poorly in the hospital and is in intensive care with congestive heart failure issues. I have been at the same hospital where my son was every day for the last 2 full weeks now!! Not really sure how she will do, seems to be up and down. We had to fly my sister home because we all thought we were going to have to say good bye to our grandma a few days ago. Today she seems to be improving though so only time will tell. I have not told Dylan how she is doing just because of the anxiety, he knows she's there, but having just been there he thinks everyone there goes to school and does art projects and plays with toys! I gotta run, thanks for all the support guys, I will keep you posted on how things go. Oh, and our old behavor therapist refuses to see us now because apparently we are seeing too many professionals!

Well that's nice of your old therapist, really helpful.

I dont have much to offer but I do know anxiety really means you're scared of something you cant see or put your finger on which can really make for changes in behaviour, Im the same at 30

Maybe in the hospital he felt safe in a strange sort of way. Meaning doors are locked, everything happens at the same time everyday, he knew nothing bad could happen as he was surrounded by adults and he didnt have to be alone?

Dont know if that makes any sense to you but it might to your son. I asked my mum when I was seven if I could go to boarding school, prison or into a mental hospital to live. Needless to say this caused her concern but these places seemed the SAFE places for me. Weird I know