Monday, May 25, 2009

History

I am the lucky mom of three lively high energy kids!

Ashlynn is 16 and was diagnosed with ADD when she was 10.
Chase is 13 and was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 7.
Kolton is 8 and was diagnosed with Asperger's when he was 7.

When testing suggested that Ash had ADD we went ahead and got chase tested at the same time since he obviously had the same lack of focus combined with literally climbing the walls and anything else he could climb! I knew nothing about ADD and ADHD at the time, just that I thought I was a horrible mother since it seemed like I couldn't "control" my kids!! I was such a quiet well behaved kid that it was a huge shock that they were not the same as me. Ashlynn simply could not do her school work and Chase was constantly in trouble at school! I never saw the inside of the principle's office in school, but he seemed to be there everyday. I remember looking in the class one day when he was in grade 1 and the whole class was working quietly and Chase was crawling around on the floor driving his eraser under everyone's desks.

After being diagnosed we decided to try medication despite protests from extended family, you would have thought we were giving them a lobotomy!! Within half an hour of their first pill it was like a miracle had happened, even Ashlynn told me how wonderful it felt to be able to sit and do her homework. Homework that day took half an hour, it normally took 2 to 3 hours!! Chase stopped spinning, literally and there were no more trips to the principle's office!!

The ease of taking a little pill everyday was so easy that we settled in and started just enjoying life! There were some small issues along the way with Chase, the Dr. kept increasing his medication, which I didn't like but it seemed necessary to keep him on track at school. Ash stayed on the lowest dose possible and was doing well.

Then Kolton started school. We knew he was quirky as we called him but school really emphasized his differences. He had a major health issue at 3 and was hospitalized for over a month and had 3 operations. For a kid who would not take Tylenol or wear a band aid, this was a major trauma, so we put his differences down to this experience. We got through JK and SK then grade 1 happened. Going to school everyday seemed to overwhelm him and he did not like all the distractions in his class. He would actually ask to go work at the office so he could focus. So we took him to the Dr. to see what the issue was. The pediatrician jumped right to ADHD and prescribed medication. This didn't seem right to me since I already had a ADHD and they were very different kids. Our family Dr. who knows Kolton well as she is at our house weekly to scrapbook and his teacher both came to me and suggested Asperger's. So I started my research and Asperger's seemed to make way more sense than ADHD. After extensive (and expensive) testing it was confirmed that Kolton did have Asperger's.

With this third diagnosis I really started questioning what the heck was going on in our family!?! At the same time all this was happening we began to really worry about Chase because while he wasn't getting in trouble at school and he was getting his school work done he had retreated into himself. There was a body moving around the house but there was no life in that body, there was literally a shell! So I started intensive research and made some changes that had a huge impact on each of our kids and on us!!

More tomorrow on what I found and what I tried.

Pamela

1 comment:

  1. Wow, does this every sound similar to our life.

    Jim & Kathy Anderson

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