well, it's been a few days on meds now, and i've noticed something... they're wearing off awfully early. yesterday (wednesday) blithe was almost in tears by the time she got off the bus after school, and today, she was back to her moody self by 4:00. she flipped out over a snack (i gave her some choices, but she wanted something else, and that, apparently, is worthy of a fit. nice, eh? ugh.) so i'll be chatting with her paeds about the dose of the med.
but in the meantime, i'm teaching blithe some of my little tricks to focus. we're working on breathing. just breathing. when she feels overwhelmed, she just breathes for a minute or two. i've always found that conscious breathing helps to focus my attention on one thing, and it helps to calm me down when i'm upset/freaking. and so far, blithe has said it helps her, too. so i'm glad about that.
let's see... what else tonight?... ah, yes. it was "meet the teacher" tonight at school (though i really don't know where else you'd have meet the teacher LOL). anyway, i was chatting with her teacher, who knows she's on meds, and he made a point of telling me that blithe had a great day today. she paid attention, worked hard, participated in class really well. i was so happy to hear that!! she has never done that before, so this was wonderful!!! i'm really happy to know the meds are helping, and she's beginning to have some success in school. she was so encouraged tonight when we talked about it. she was really proud of herself, probably for the first time since starting school. apparently, mr t said today that she was "on fire" - she knew the answer to almost every question, and was raising her hand nicely and really had a great day. blithe was thrilled! (so was i.) she has also been able to tell me about what they're learning in school now. every day this week she has filled me in on animals who change colour to match their environments. can you believe it?! she's retaining information!!! this has never happened before!!!!! i couldn't be happier or more proud than i am today. :)
there is one other thing i'd like to write about, before i forget. here in ontario, there's a programme called ACSD (Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities). currently, i get this for my son, who has some health issues of his own, though they're all physical. anyway, when blithe was diagnosed last week, her paediatrician (who was over for tea at the time... lol yes, we're friends. lol) told me to pop in to her office the next day for a prescription and an ACSD application. i'll admit, that upset me a bit. i hadn't really thought about ADHD as being a disability. i mean, she's functional, beyond smart, not unstable or anything. but when dr b filled out her form in the application the other day, she checked off three or four criteria for blithe. one of these was "is unable to recognize dangers in the home or community." that one hit me hard. because it's true. blithe knows about the dangers intellectually, but i don't think she regularly makes the connection between the information and the reality. that one is absolutely heartbreaking. on the other hand, i'm going to take that little check-mark, and use it. now that i've thought about it, and i know that this is an issue, i'm just going to have to make an effort to remind blithe about the dangers around her (without scaring her, ideally). there's so much to this condition that i hadn't considered. i'll admit, it's a little overwhelming at times. on the other hand, my son's health issues were overwhelming at first, too, and now i know WAY too much about his stuff. so i know i can do this. and she'll be ok. :)
well, i think that's about it for now. i'll let you go and try to stop your head from spinning now. sorry about the poor writing in this post. i try to write coherently, but this is the first chance i've had to post in a few days, and it's almost 4 am now, so this is what you get. LOL
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