Guanfacine - Two Weeks In

Logan will have been on Guanfacine ( his ADHD medication) for two weeks tomorrow.  Holy cow we have seen such a difference in that little kid.  The night terrors that we were dealing with last week are still there but seem to be getting better every day.  At this point he is still waking up once a night but is able to be calmed down and he is sleeping in his own bed again (hallelujah!!)  His Dr. thinks his night terrors should keep getting better and better at this point.

But oh my gosh he is seriously a different kid.  He is still quirky Logan, still obsessed with his keys and motorcycle and Legos but he is just so much calmer.  He is not getting worked up the way he would, little things aren't setting him off and he is able to listen and understand what we are asking of him.

His inclusion teacher at daycare has been out all week and his regular teacher who we have had serious issues with by the way pulled  me aside to tell me how great Logan is doing.  He is taking naps he is sitting for circle time and he is playing with the other kids.

Logan seems so much happier too.  The other day I picked him up early for occupational therapy and he rattled on and on about his day and then tells me, "Miss Destini gave me my medicine again today.  My medicine makes my life happy."  Like SERIOUSLY he can see a difference and I'm so happy for him I can't even stand it.

We still have to give the medicine two more weeks to get a real understanding of how it is going to work for Logan but we have our fingers crossed that it will keep working as well as it has been.  I feel like I finally have my child back.  My sweet loving child that I haven't seen in two years.  He is being kind and fun and smiling and interacting with us instead of being stressed and angry and violent.  I'm so happy with the results we have seen and I'm just so happy for Logan.  He is such an amazing kid and deserves a chance to be happy.

Medication

So, we decided to try putting Logan on medication.  Please, no judgement.  Logan has been so rough and hasn't seemed to be making much progress, even with going to the Children's Center five days a week.  Logan's psychotherapist referred us to a psychiatrist, Dr. Claire, who also works at the Children's Center.  And by the way she is fantastic!  She went in several days to observe Logan during preschool and visit with him.  She then met with Matt, Logan and me and spent two hours discussing his condition with us.  After thinking over it and praying for several weeks we decided it was time to try medication.

Logan and I met with Dr. Claire last Thursday and she recommended putting him on Guanfacine twice a day.  He started it last Friday has seemed to do really well with it.  The medicine was supposed to make him exhausted the first 10 days but we haven't seen this too badly.  He seems a little tired and maybe a little grumpy but the big win is he seems to not be as impulsive and angry.

I pulled up to pick him Monday night and he was outside with his inclusion teacher.  Apparently the kids in the classroom were being noisy and he told the teacher, "I'm overwhelmed, I need a break."  What a win!  So his inclusion teacher took him for a walk so he could calm down.  He has done similar things like this at home and seems to be expressing himself more than just getting angry.

The only bad side effect we have seen is nightmares.  He had a nightmare over the weekend but we were able to calm him down within about 10 minutes and he then slept through the rest of the night.  but Tuesday night he woke up at 2 am terrified and did not calm down the rest of the night.  By around 3 am Matt moved to the couch and I pulled Logan into bed with me and he slept on and off but was terrified of everything. 

He woke up around 6 screaming that his pajamas were scary, the carpet was scary, the toilet was scary, the shadows were scary, you name it he was scared of it.  I couldn't miss work so we sent him to school and he stayed terrified all day.  It went so far that he insisted something was inside his shirt and the teachers had to take it off, shake it and show him there wasn't anything there.

When I picked him up he was just shaking.  I felt horrible and the worst part was he kept telling me, "I'm scared mom, I'm just so scared and it's something but its nothing."  It's like he knew there wasn't anything to be scared of but he still couldn't calm down.  He fell asleep around 6 that night and we were finally able to wake him up at 7:30 and feed him dinner but he would not sit anywhere but on my lap.  He was afraid of his sheets and couldn't go to bed so he was up until 10:00 until I finally took him to bed with me again.  He slept through most of the night and woke up today feeling much better and happy. I'm hoping that this was because he got too tired but I called his Dr. just in case.

So that's the update on Logan and where we are at dealing with his sensory processing disorder.  The Children's Center is still evaluating Logan for autism but for now we don't have a definitive answer.  I do feel like he is in the right place and we have the right people to help Logan get this all figured out.

Bad Day

Yesterday Logan had a rough day.  He has days that are good and days that are bad and yesterday was a bad one.  It's almost like his brain isn't firing quite right or something and he wakes up off and nothing you do the whole day can make a difference.  He is irritable and aggressive and unreasonable.  His comprehension is down and so he won't listen to the things you say and it seems like all we can do is get through the day and hope we wakes up better the next day.




He woke up irritable yesterday morning and refused to get up and get ready for school.  He laid on the floor crying and yelled at me when I tried to help.  I fed him breakfast before I took him to school to see if that would help but it didn't.  He went to the Children's Center and luckily they are trained to handle him on his bad days.  But his inclusion teacher got in a car accident on the way to the daycare and wasn't waiting for him when he got off the bus like she always does. 




The front desk worker didn't know what to do so she sent him back with the other preschool kids who were finishing lunch and getting ready for naps and the classroom was very chaotic.  The teachers were busy with the other kids so Logan didn't get his normal calm down routine before naps and he snapped and lost it.  Logan bit and scratched a kid right before his inclusion teacher showed up.  And this all happened within about 15 minutes.  And because he bit it was an automatic suspension for the day.




One of the hardest parts of all of this for me is feeling like I can't be there for Logan when he needs me. I'm out of sick time and had a big meeting at work yesterday afternoon that I couldn't miss.  Thank goodness my mother-in-law was around and picked him up for me and just had him watch Daniel Tiger until I got there to pick him up.  When I tried to talk to him about what had happened he seriously had no clue.  It was like he was a deer in the headlights and he just stared at me with those big blank eyes.  His bad days scare me to death.




Logan crashed and fell asleep on the drive home.  He got about 30 minutes of sleep before I woke him up to eat the chicken nuggets I picked up from Wendy's.  He cried and cried and cried.  And cried until his face was bright red and he was hysterical.  We forced him to eat, did a quick bath and then put him down for early bed.  He woke up better this morning and I hope he has a better day today.

Children's Center - One Month In

Okay, well there have been a TON of changes in our neck of the woods over the past two months.  I wrote back in December about Logan being diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder.  Because we have a diagnosis our daycare was able to apply for state funding to get an inclusion teacher to work with Logan one on one.  So basically whenever Logan is at daycare he has an inclusion teacher with him.  It has been an absolute blessing.  It is a husband and wife duo who are the most loving, kind patient people I have ever met in my entire life.


At the end of December Logan and I met with the same child psychologist at the Children's Center who helped us get him diagnosed.  Her name is Kate by the way and she is freaking awesome!  We talked about Logan and she went on to diagnosis him with anxiety, ADHD and possibly autism.  She recommended we put him in the special needs group therapy preschool at the Children's Center for half a day FIVE DAYS A WEEK.  Which would also mean he wouldn't get to go to his preschool at Mountain Shadows anymore.


This seemed totally extreme at first and not really something we wanted to do so we went home and prayed and talked and prayed and really watched Logan.  And it hit Matt and I, this is the answer we have been searching for.  Logan is the sweetest little guy but really, the past two years have been so incredibly hard and we have been searching for help and here it is.  So we signed Logan up and he started January 20th.


So now Logan goes to daycare in the morning where he is met at the front by his inclusion teacher and given breakfast.  The Children's Center bus comes to pick him up at 8:30 and drops him back off at daycare at 12:30 where he is again met by his inclusion teacher.  The teacher stays with him until 5:00 when I pick him up.  Oh, and on Tuesday afternoons we go over to the Primary Children's facility where he has occupational therapy to work on his SPD. And Logan and I meet with Kate twice a month go over Logan's progress.


We have been blown away by the amount of help we are getting.  I just can't even believe it.  The past month has been a bit rocky for Logan to adjust to his new schedule and I'm not going to lie, the Children's Center is a really tough little program.  He comes home exhausted and crashes as soon as his head hits his pillow.  The first few weeks he seemed more grumpy but he has since fallen into a routine and gets excited to go to his school each day.


The goal is to have Logan out of the Children's Center program in six months and have him be able to interact in his normal daycare class without so many incidents.  I know we are at the beginning of all of this and have a long way to go but I'm just so glad we are going somewhere.

When Mommy is Sick

I have been sick.  Like REALLY sick.  With just a stupid cold but it has been like the cold of all colds.  I have had it for over a week and it has put me under.  On Monday I woke up and couldn't hear out of my right ear, turns out I have double ear infections and my ear drum ruptured later that day.  So I have been doing the absolute bare minimum and nothing else and its starting to show.  The house is a wreck, there are piles of laundry, and the kids have watched more TV than I care to admit to.  But I think the really cool part about being sick is seeing how your family responds.


My family freaking rocks.  From Matt doing laundry and taking care of the kids to how my kiddos have been stepping up and pulling their weight.  My mom and sister bringing me cinnamon rolls.  Then my brother in law bringing dinner that he made!  And my dad dropping off a pie!  But the best is how the kids have been taking care of me. 


On Monday when my eardrum ruptured I was pretty much down with all the pain.  Nathan was bringing me drinks and snacks and trying to show me funny videos on YouTube.  Logan was by my side covering me up with his blanket and insisting on rubbing my back and constantly telling me to close my eyes.  The best was when he tried to fill the humidifier up with water because "it makes mommy healthy."

Even though being sick is no fun I love how much my family has been caring for me.  And I'm so proud of my kids and how quick they are to see a need and serve in any way that they can.  I have felt very loved and cared for and feel blessed to have such an awesome family!!

Sensory Processing Disorder

After two years of concern and fear and frustration we finally have an answer to explain Logan's difficulties.  After a year of doctors and therapists and neighbors and friends looking at Matt and I like we were crazy. After a year of Logan struggling so much with daycare and kids and lets be honest, life in general.  We finally found someone who would listen and understand.


Back at the end of the summer Logan's daycare insisted that there was something wrong with Logan and that he needed behavioral therapy.  We started talking to therapists and got him enrolled in a special needs preschool through our school district to try to help with his behavior.  But it wasn't enough.  So in November we talked to Logan's pediatrician who like everyone else thought we were crazy and overreacting but referred us to the Children's Center.  The Children's Center then referred us to the Primary Children's behavioral clinic in Taylorsville and the therapist finally put all the pieces together.  Logan has a sensory processing disorder.


It's like the light bulb has gone on, I don't know how else to describe it.  The therapist at the Children's Center said he has symptoms of ADHD, anxiety, OCD, autism, and behavioral defiant disorder.  All of the symptoms he is exhibiting are ALL symptoms of sensory processing disorder.  Every single once. 


The therapist from Primary Children's thinks he has a sensory modulation dysfunction meaning he is overly sensitive to sensory information.  This explains about 90% of his strange behavior. Like how he walks on his toes, or why he rearranges decorations in the house or why he is afraid of trees and pumpkins and a red ring bath toy or why he cries when I wash his hair and most importantly, why he is being aggressive and violent.


As I type this out it seems so weird that we would be so happy about this diagnosis but I'm so happy I could just cry (and I have been).  Finally someone can help us to understand why Logan is the way he is and how we can help him.  Because we have a diagnosis the daycare can now apply for state funding to have an aid worker be with Logan every day and give him the one on one attention that he needs right now.  And he is going to be in therapy twice a month with a therapist who is trained to help kids with SPD. 


Logan is such a great kid but he has been so misunderstood the past year.  I'm so excited that we are going to get Logan so much help so that everyone can see what an amazing kid he really is.

Daniel Tiger is Confusing my Children

Don't get me wrong, Daniel Tiger is very well loved at my house, even by my husband and me.  Mickey Mouse Clubhouse used to be the show constantly on at my house and it drove my husband and I crazy.  Daniel Tiger is such a breath of fresh air.  The lessons are good, the songs are catchy and way less annoying then "bubble up bubble up bubble up".  Gag me!


So we were thrilled when BOTH of my children fell in love with Daniel Tiger.  They are three and five and Daniel is the only show the both of them like to watch together.  It plays at our house almost every single day and we sing the songs like crazy and Logan is even getting a Daniel Tiger birthday party.  But is anyone else's kids getting confused by the show?


Like for example, the new episode that talks about food allergies.  In the episode Daniel learns he is allergic to peaches and they talk about what to do if you have an allergy and so on and so forth.  Great educational episode.  Except now both of my kiddos think they are allergic to peaches and have told their teachers at daycare that they can't eat peaches and downright refuse to eat them now. 


Or a second example, the magical garden where all the neighbors go to pick fruit or vegetables or whatever for free, whenever they would like.  So when we walk by someone's house Logan can't understand why it is not okay to pick apples off people's trees or why we can't pull the carrots out of the ground at Wheeler farm or why we can't pick flowers out of people's gardens. 


Or my absolute favorite example.  The episode where Mom Tiger is pregnant and having baby Margaret.  Logan has latched on to that episode for some reason and watches it way more than the rest.  But now the problem is he is convinced that he is getting a baby sister too, just like Daniel.  And he is telling everyone!  I'm absolutely thrilled if you can't tell.


I love that my kids have found such a great show to love so much but I think their obsession may have turned over to insanity.  Daniel Tiger, how you make our world go round.