Pardon Me, But I Think You're Full of Poop

An IM conversation I was having with a good friend:

"I hypothesize that if there were less a*holes in the world, our kids would have an easier time."

"That is also amazingly true, but for some reason being an a*hole is acceptable. Because it is the norm, I guess?"

Gus was on Strattera for six days. Of those six days, the first day was fine; second day he needed prompting in the afternoon; fifth day (a Monday) he had a bad day; day six he was okay at school, but wouldn't stay in his seat on the afternoon bus. Honestly, these reports could have come at any time, whether on the meds or not. They were pretty unremarkable except for the school bus incident. The end of last week he had two decent days off the medication.

Today, his first day back from the Memorial Day weekend (he never has a good day after a weekend or holiday), also the day the teacher found out that he'd been off the meds for a few days, he apparently had a terrible day. I got a whole laundry list of things he did wrong today. And suddenly it seems that she had a feeling he was off the meds.

I think she's full of something stinky.

I'm so fed up with the ridiculous expectations and the negative attitude. Not that Gus is an angel, but he's a pretty good kid. Seven-year-olds can be defiant, so can five-year-olds and teenagers. Why must my kid be singled out every day of his freaking life because he's not medicated?

We'll probably try a different dose of the Strattera before switching to the Focalin. Heaven help these people if he gets so out of control that he does something really dangerous to himself or if this medication harms him in any way. Heaven help them.

Edit: Doc and I have settled on a slightly higher dosage for a few days to step him up slowly. I have a headache now.

I sent Gus to school today without any medication. The report from his teacher was that it was a pretty good day with only a couple of issues - he didn't finish his work fast enough to get computer time and then he got upset. Just like yesterday. I wonder if the level of improvement we saw was just a placebo effect. Maybe he was just having good days and they had nothing to do with the Strattera.

He had a better time on the bus until he was almost home and then he got a bit unruly again. I can see that he's nowhere near as wild today as he was then. Yesterday he came in and was crashing into the door and was just running non-stop. He had a burst of energy when he got off the bus, but he's fairly calm at the moment.

Gus also slept better last night. I think that probably has more to do with putting the blackout curtains up again.

So, I'm convinced that we are done with Strattera. I've ordered a homeopathic ADHD remedy to try over the weekend, just out of curiosity, before I talk to his doctor again on Tuesday or Wednesday. She had wanted to try him on Focalin, which is a stimulant(similar to Ritalin, but longer lasting).

As an interesting aside, I read that 100mg of coffee has a similar effect on the brain as the lowest dosage of Ritalin. Maybe I should just get Gus to start drinking coffee?