Part 2.1

To continue from yesterday and catch you up--

Olivia was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, oppositional defiance disorder (no wonder homeschool sucked!), Tourette's Syndrome, severe anxiety, sensory processing disorder, and perhaps needed Asperger's testing.  Her anxiety about school was approaching a phobia level.  She was one upset little dudette.  There could be more, there could be less--I seriously doubt that this will be her final diagnosis.  None of these really upset us--we knew there were some things about her that were quite Aspie-ish.  We knew she was defiant (I just didn't think we at a "disorder" level yet).  

See why I quit blogging?

Now here's where it gets dicey.  I've decided to share our decision to put our daughter on medication for only one reason--to help other people.  I get so many hits on my posts about sensory processing disorder, and these other moms are so desperate for information and real world situations.  We get a lot of disapproval for choosing the drug, but I'm going to go out and say that if you've tried everything else, if you've researched thoroughly, then medication is worth a try too.

I had done my research.  So when the child psych said we needed to treat her as ADHD and give her a stimulant (that is what Ritalin is), I nodded and I said politely disagreed.  I can see why people would confuse her fidgeting with an attention problem, I can see that she has trouble being still, and I can see that her attention span is unfocused sometimes.  But, to me, those are all traced to a sensory issue (an uncomfortable chair, needed to feel the pressure of the floor under her feet, or having a child sitting too close to her and lightly brushing her arm).  Those are all fixable with an accommodating teacher.  I said we have to treat the anxiety.

And he listened to me.  He warned us that anti-anxiety treatment might take a high dosage to get at the tics, and even higher to really get into the obsessions.  (She weighs 42 lbs at age 7, and she is the pickiest eater I've ever run across. Her obsessions could easily become anorexia or bulimia related as she gets older--obviously, these are things we want to conquer now.)

We started the medicine.  We kept up the weekly occupational therapy.  We kept up the diet and vitamin changes.  We moved so that she could see her father more and because there was a chance of a different school system.  We also have central a/c in this base house, which was probably impacting her sensory issues and making her even more irritable.  We see the child psych almost every week.  We changed her school situation (yet another post yet to come).

After only 4 weeks, her tics have stopped.  After 2 1/2 years of tics.  I haven't heard her say she hated me in over 2 weeks, when I used to get that yelled at me multiple times a day.  I used to be told how stupid I was, how horrible my cooking was, and what a mean mom I was.  Every day, all day long.

Now that it has kicked in, her child psych thinks we don't have to do Asperger's testing.  (Her sorting and pattern habit appears to simply be an obsession.)  He is surprised at her positive reaction to such a low dose, and he didn't think we would even have any luck with the tics at that low dose.  She is a different child.  I actually like her now.  She is delightful, she is funny, and she is happy.  She even said that she was glad to take "her vitamin" because she felt so much better.  I didn't ask her that--she volunteered that one night.  She is cuddly.  Her balance is improving at her OT.  She is thriving in her new school situation.  

The doctor tells me every time he sees me, "You were right."  He didn't think we needed to treat her anxiety, but he listened and he accepted it, and hey, Mom was right!

So, to sum up, things are going well.  Things are going super.  Things are more right than they have ever been for our whole family.  In just 45 days, we went from being horribly unhappy and at our wits' end to feeling much more in control and much more content.  

And tomorrow, I'll be telling you about first grade!