I’m so proud of my son! | ADHD Information
Congratulations on the success! It is so good when our children are allowed to live up to thier full potential. I will bet your son is so proud of himself and he should be.
As you know from previous posts, Jacob is in 1st grade. The last day of school was Thursday. In his final report card the teacher included an official letter stating that he scored the highest in all the 1st grade classes in his school (reading and math). It also stated that he was in the 98% of all 1st grade students in the USA. That means there are only 2% of kids that are higher than him in the whole country.
My wife and I are so proud of him! He has had a difficult time these past 2 years. Hyperactivity was causing major issues, both at school and socially. His over-focusing caused many social problems and even got him suspended for 3 days. I gotta say he put a lot of hard work into his school work, but I attribute most of his success to his medication, counseling, and my wife's patience, love, and persistence. My wife decided to not have a full-time job, so she could be with Jacob 100% of the time. She's read eveything she could find about ADHD and has been very good about getting him into doctors visits ASAP.
Now that school is out were changing his med to Stratera. (Adderall was doing a good job calming him down and helping him with his compulsivity and hyperactivity. But it was also causing tics and anxiety issues that needed to be addressed.) We're hoping that next school year he can continue to succeed in school, but be better at making and keeping friends.
For those who are newbies on this forum, keep fighting for your kids and keep working hard at finding the right treatment. There is hope!
If anyone is interested in photos of Jacob, and other photos I've created, click on this link... http://community.myfoxcleveland.com/blogs/AkronPhotographerDad in Akron39242.8343287037
Congratulations, you must be so proud!
I just wanted to share our experience with strattera. My son is very hyper and impulsive. We ADDED straterra so that there was a med in his system at all times, being that stratterra builds up over time in the blood system and doesn't leave the body after so many hours like stimulants.
Well, the straterra made him extremely depressed, one of the side effects. My son at the time was 8 and told us out of the blue that he wanted to kill himself! We immediately stopped the med, cold turkey and have never gone back to it, nor has my son, now 10 (on the 27th of June), has never mentioned wanting to kill himself or die!
Just a heads up. If your son is more of the inattentive type of adhd, you may find strat. to work, though keep an eye on the side effects. If he is impulsive and hyperactive, it may not be the one.
Just our experience.
I wish your family much continued success! Your wife sounds awesome. She too had a huge accomplishment from all she did for your son!
Regards!
Congratulations to all of you. Everyone should be so proud. I applaud your wife (and you) in all the patience and hard work. Am so happy it is paying off. Good luck with the Straterra, it works wonders for so many people. There is no reason to live with the anxiety and tics, we have those same problems when using stimulants. The summer is a great time to change meds!
[QUOTE=chasesmom79]If there is one thing that I have learned from reading this forum, it is that one person's nightmare med may be someone else's wonder drug! The two people may be just alike in age, size and symptoms, but fare exactly the opposite in med side effects and effectiveness.
It sounds like you have researched the med, and having a pediatrician in the family is a major plus, I would say!
Congrats to Jacob, and good luck with the med switch!
[/QUOTE]I wonder if anyone has researched whether strat works better on people that haven't taken a stimulant for a long time. I find there's more complaints [at least from adults] around it when they've been on adderall or concerta first. It seems to have "gentler" effects than major stimulants and works more slowly.
Maybe this should be researched....
I actually got "happy" [contented] the first week on strattera. Very weird.
I just "upped" the dose yesterday. Still got no focus, no concentration and a lot of fidgeting.
What it DID do was slow the verbal trains long enough for me not to blurt out stupid things at the top of my lungs.
So, Jacob may have a very different experience on it. All you can do is keep a med diary and see what happens.
Glad to see the little fella is doing so well
If there is one thing that I have learned from reading this forum, it is that one person's nightmare med may be someone else's wonder drug! The two people may be just alike in age, size and symptoms, but fare exactly the opposite in med side effects and effectiveness.
It sounds like you have researched the med, and having a pediatrician in the family is a major plus, I would say!
Congrats to Jacob, and good luck with the med switch!
Bethann, thanks your your warnings about Stratera. I believe this forum has been very helpful in giving us the much need information we need. Doctors have very limited time, and as you know, we parents need more guidance than they can offer. You and others on this website have been a blessing to us! I don't think we could get through this without your support and the support of others! I feel like I'm in the perfect support group available!As Jacob continues to make the switch to Stratera, we'll watch him closely for side-effects, most especially depression and suicidal thoughts. My wife's sister is a pediatrician and we often consult her advise, so we're in a good position to be safe.
As time goes by, I'll keep updating Jacob's progress because I know that as he grows and enters puberty, his ADHD will most likely change too.Dad in Akron39243.2237847222