Day Five...Concerta

Color me surprised. M on 18mg of Concerta for 2 days wasn't the hellish experience I was expecting. He was actually pretty ok.

Today is day 3 of 27mg, so tomorrow we start on the 36mg dose that we've been building up to.

The only real negative I'm seeing is a reemergence of facial tics. But I don't feel too worried about that as we've seen transient facial tics with almost every medication he's been on. They seem to be mostly related to him feeling stressed or tired, and today he is *definitely* worn out. Not only that, but he's not in his normal routine this week, which always makes him feel more stressed than usual.

Overall I don't have a feeling about the Concerta one way or the other. It doesn't seem to be *that* much better than Vyvanse, but we also aren't on the therapeutic dose yet. We may see that 36mg is fantastic as compared to the 50mg of Vyvanse we were on before.

Day One...Concerta

Today is day one of trying M on Concerta. Things aren't going great at school, and the psychiatrist is worried about lots of things after seeing the Conners rating scale the teacher filled out.

M unmedicated is not a pretty thing. Since we're starting at 18mg of Concerta, I think the next 2 to 3 days are going to suck for all of us royally. I don't mean to be negative, but we've been through medication changes before and they weren't pretty.

What I'm hoping is that the Concerta, even though we've tried it before, will hit different receptors in his brain than the Vyvanse did, and that we'll see some of the behaviors that are causing school/friend/etc issues will lessen.

This is a work in process, as is any ADHD medication. Today and tomorrow we'll do 18mg, then Sunday or Monday we'll go up to 27mg. Two to three days on 27mg and then it's up to 36mg for the next 10 days. After that, school will be back in and the real test will begin. We'll see in which areas the meds are helping and which they aren't. We'll decide whether to increase the dose to 45mg or 54mg. We'll also see if we need to tweak the times he gets his meds. There's the possibility that we'll do a short acting in the morning and the long acting at lunch...but for now, we're trying the long acting in the morning and continuing with the short acting in the afternoon as usual.

Wish us luck.

If Concerta doesn't work, we go back to Vyvanse until school lets out again in December...then it's on to Focalin.

Have I mentioned how I much I hate having my kid on meds? It drives me nuts. I hate that he has to take medication to make him "socially acceptable." But I continue the meds because I believe there are children in this world who need medication to function...and children aren't equipped to not be accepted by others. And if this helps him function and gain acceptance from his peers, then this is what we'll do. We've tried everything else...diet, exercise, behavior modification...and on their own, the ends don't justify the means.

While I hate any child to be on medication, I also believe that it's not just about the child. It's about the family. If having a child (or parent) on medication is what's best for the family AND the child, then so be it. We have medications available to us for a reason.

Me and my Vitamin D

I had my Vitamin D level checked for the first time probably a year or so ago, and it was low. So the Dr put me on 50,000IU/week for 12 weeks. I guess it went up because then she told me to take 2,000IU/day. Then I had it checked again during one of my regular checkups, and it was low again. Back to the 50,000IU/week for 12 weeks. It went up. I started taking the 2,000IU/day again. Had it checked again and it was low, but I guess not terribly, so I've been taking 3,000IU/day for a few months now.

I went to my Endocrinologist to have my thyroid checked (I'm hypothyroid and have some nodules on my thyroid) and he offered to check my Vitamin D at the same time as my thyroid levels since they had to draw blood anyway. It's low. Again. So now I'll be taking 50,000IU TWICE a week for 12 weeks.

I wonder what it is with my body that I can't keep my Vit D level consistent. It's just weird. Maybe getting out and biking more would help...exercise, sunshine...

Oh joy! It's officially football season!!

My husband loves football.

When we were first living together, I would sit and "watch" (by watch, I mean ask questions relentlessly until he got so annoyed with me that I'd simply go somewhere else in the apartment) it with him. When my question asking started getting the answer "just listen to the announcers and you'll understand what's going on" I decided to take matters into my own hands and buy "Football for Dummies."

Clearly I'm no Dummy because I failed to understand football.

So let me tell you how overjoyed I am to hear him yelling at the television tonight...telling the PROFESSIONAL football players to "just put your head down and go!"

Four months and it will all be over, right?

I can do this.

What's shakin' turkey bacon?

Wut up, yo? Anything exciting been happening lately?

Here are some exciting things that are happening with yours truly:

1. I had an AWESOME trip to Boulder last month (August). I did a good amount of jewelry business, which was my main reason for going out there. I did some sight seeing, and it was as beautiful as last time I was there.

2. My jewelry has been doing pretty well at one place in Boulder; and that's ArtMart. I was surprised how much sold the first week or two it was there.

3. My jewelry has been selling more here in my local area and on my website. I've had 2 web orders (though I haven't gotten payment for one yet, so I'm still waiting) and have sold 3 pieces at a gallery in Raleigh.

4. Bummer, but I haven't gotten on my bike in what seems like forever. And the bad news is that after this week, the kids are tracked out, so it will be another 3 weeks before I can do any real biking...unless I go before hubs goes to work or after he gets home. I'm kinda bummed about that because I've been reading this book, Ride Your Way Lean, and I want to get started on doing it.

5. I'm going on a cruise! This December, my Mom is taking my sister and I on a cruise to the eastern Caribbean! I'm excited. I've never been on a cruise before. I'm kind of nervous as I tend toward motion sickness, but I'm hoping I won't get it because the boat is soooo big! Look it up - it's the Carnival Glory.

6. I finally got my jewelry into a store in SC that I've been trying to get into for months. So I need to get my ass in gear making more jewelry so I can send it down there.

7. What else? I dunno...nothing I can talk about here.

So that's about it for now. I'm sure I'm missing something, but if I remember, I'll come back and write it.

Tell me what's been going on with you.