Wednesday, June 18, 2008

An Answer

We grow in time to trust the future for our answers.~ Ruth Benedict

Today was a much better day. I prayed for strength and God delivered. I prayed that Daniel would have peace and God delivered. There were much fewer panic attacks and far less dizziness. God also delivered an unexpected gift...an answer.

The phone rang at about 3 pm, today. It was the voice of a girl who I knew in high school. We have chatted a few times, lately. Her son was also diagnosed with ADHD. She knows my situation and is just as determined to find answers to end this battle, as I am. Her information brought me a wave of relief, as she explained that Daniel's latest symptoms were the result of withdraw of the Focalin XR. Apparently, the medicine must be gradually tapered off. Stopping, cold turkey, produces effects similar to a drug addicts withdraw symptoms.

I told Daniel, right away, what I had found out. His little blue eyes filled up with tears and he whispered, "So, I'm not gonna die?" The poor little guy! I just hugged him and reassured him that he was going to be fine. The road will be bumpy for awhile. He was so scared to even have a bowel movement, today, for fear of passing out if he pushed. It took a solid 70 minutes of sitting on the toilet, praying together and convincing, to get him to relax and go. Seriously. I kept having to run out and check on the kids, only to hear him screaming that he was going to pass out. He made me sit by the toilet with the phone, ready to dial 911. It was sad and not too pleasant smelling. Mothers will do the darndest things for their kids.

I tucked him in, tonight, with the promise that he would be able to call me for any reason. At least he can rest easier, knowing that this too, shall pass.


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yup... just proves how limited doctors' knowledge is. Most medicine is actually trial and error. I had a doctor tell me that a medicine cannot lose its efficacy. That is so not true. My psychopharmacologist knows this to be true and will switch meds if we believe this is happening.

It also makes so much sense that you cannot just go cold turkey and stop a medication.

When you were on Supernanny, it was pretty obvious that your husband would forget/ignore Daniel Jr.'s condition.

I'm extremely leery of psychologists and psychiatrists(both my daughter and I have had really bad experiences with them). My daughter was a "cutter." Before we even heard of that word and condition, a psychiatrist had her hospitalized for attempted suicide. She insisted that she did not want to commit suicide, but didn't know why she had done what she did. The doctor seemed to have no knowledge of cutting... we took her out of the hospital "against medical advice." When we learned about "cutting," we never saw him again. We managed to deal with it -- and pretty much leave it behind us -- all by ourselves.

Hang in there. It may not seem like it at the moment, but this too shall pass and you will got to the light at the end of the tunnel.

Anonymous said...

Kadi, I am glad that your son is feeling better. There are several videos on You-Tube that explain environmental illness. Watching the first three videos would explain what environmental illness is. I strongly recommend these videos; it would validate your concerns. Please let me know what you think!

Anonymous said...

I uploaded a video on my site for you to watch.

Anonymous said...

Thanks ladies :)

Anonymous said...

iluveyeeore~
just out of curiosity, are you one of the people on TWOP boards that participated in the thread about my family's SuperNanny episode? Those people did not like me, so I was not sure if you had any connection, not that it matters.

Thanks for your 2 cents. I've never heard of a psychopharmacologist. Wow! Big word!

Yes, I don't know what I was thinking regarding the cold turkey method. The doctor never mentioned weaning.

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