Today was day 4 of the Prozac. We only made it to day 4 with the Lexapro before Ewen was over it. But I'm only giving .3 ML's so it is barely in his system. He seems to not be having any neurological trouble on it so far, as long at that 4 hour depression spree then amazing recovery 2 days ago (see previous post) was due to the acupuncture and not a weird neurological side effect of the Prozac. I'm 99.9% sure it was the acupuncture, and from his not eating since 11:30am, and not taking his 12:30 propranolol. His amazing evening recovery came after taking his propranolol and drinking a McDonald's milkshake. So.......
Yesterday was good. He still isn't comfortable in his own skin but we went to our/his friend's house in the evening so he could learn how to play Dungeons and Dragons. We were there an hour and he pulled me aside and said our code word: bananas, which means he is having anxiety. He wasn't due for his propranolol and he had been taking his inositol along with each dose of propranolol so there was nothing more I could do for him with medicine. So our whole family went home and he was very happy to retire to his computer and have an exciting Agario game with his friend on FaceTime.
We were having a terrible time getting him to go to sleep so I laid down a strict schedule for putting the kids to bed. All 3 kids have been affected terribly by this so I decided to give each of them full attention at bedtime instead of just telling them to go to sleep.
My youngest, age 6...bedtime at 8:oo pm. We read a story then she goes to sleep by 8:30 or 9pm, depending upon how long we read for.
My oldest daughter (with Autism) age 12. I tell her that if she wants me to sit with her while she goes to sleep she has to go to bed at 9:15pm. She complies happily, so I go and sit with her up on her bunk bed and she is usually asleep by 9:30 or 9:45 pm. I rub her feet and play video games on my phone.
Then Ewen knows that 9pm is when he hast to stop his video games and at 9:45 he has to come off his computer and come to bed. Last night he was very good about stopping Agario at 9pm (I put up a paper in his room about when Agario can and can not be played so he knew I was serious about this). He was good about stopping at 9pm then and didn't try to argue with me at 9:45pm. He was anxious and it took him about half an hour of sitting up and gulping and huffing, but he finally wen to sleep and it wasn't full of panic.
Tonight though, he brushed his teeth while I sat on his bed at 9:45 then he came to bed and I lay down with him and hugged him while playing the Pandora station, "Kids Sleep Music" on my phone. I imagined all my calmness and happiness and good energy flowing into him from my hug. He fell asleep with no panic or distress in about 5 minutes.
After he went to sleep and I came out to the living room to sit on the couch with DH. I couldn't believe it was before 10pm and he was asleep. It probably has something to do with the fact that he woke up from a weird dream at 7am this morning so he was tired. But still...he wasn't plagued by the anxiety tonight for the first time in ages. I wonder if it is the Inositol that is helping the most with that. I have gradually upped the dosage to 2 scoops, 4 times a day, taken at the same time as his propranolol. I did that because I saw in my notes that anytime something good had happened, it was after I gave him inositol, and when something bad happened I hadn't given him any or had missed a dose. I think that now that he has been taking it regularly...upping the amount over 4 weeks, that it is helping. We still want to do the Prozac because we want our kid back and the Inositol is helping but he still isn't relaxed and comfortable enough to go to the grocery store for more than 5 minutes, or feel good about going away from the house for long periods of time.
Tonight I was so worried about the hives thing that I took an Ativan (which I do very rarely..maybe 1 every 6 months when things are good). I just wanted to sleep tonight without waking up worrying constantly. I can't call his Dr. tomorrow to ask about the hives and if it is OK or not because tomorrow is MLK day and so the office is closed. I read that if you get hives this is serious side effect and you should stop taking Prozac. I also read that hives and itchiness is considered a mild side effect that you can talk to your Dr about if it bothers you. He only had the hives for half an hour today...and two days ago he also had hives for half an hour. He looked ill and flushed while he had them, but tonight after I saw the hives on his chest and forehead, he was able to eat dinner at Grandmas and eat tons of apple pie too. Then we had to leave after only being there an hour because he needed to be at home. I love that he ate with us all at the dinner table and was able to swallow his food too.
I don't know what to do but I hope we are able to continue the Prozac since it feels like we are on a path back to something positive. If we stop the Prozac we are back to stage 1 but we will do what we need to do. Ewen's Dr. said that he has other SSRI's to try if Prozac isn't right for his system.
We will see how tomorrow goes. I'll only give him 2ML's.
Yesterday was good. He still isn't comfortable in his own skin but we went to our/his friend's house in the evening so he could learn how to play Dungeons and Dragons. We were there an hour and he pulled me aside and said our code word: bananas, which means he is having anxiety. He wasn't due for his propranolol and he had been taking his inositol along with each dose of propranolol so there was nothing more I could do for him with medicine. So our whole family went home and he was very happy to retire to his computer and have an exciting Agario game with his friend on FaceTime.
We were having a terrible time getting him to go to sleep so I laid down a strict schedule for putting the kids to bed. All 3 kids have been affected terribly by this so I decided to give each of them full attention at bedtime instead of just telling them to go to sleep.
My youngest, age 6...bedtime at 8:oo pm. We read a story then she goes to sleep by 8:30 or 9pm, depending upon how long we read for.
My oldest daughter (with Autism) age 12. I tell her that if she wants me to sit with her while she goes to sleep she has to go to bed at 9:15pm. She complies happily, so I go and sit with her up on her bunk bed and she is usually asleep by 9:30 or 9:45 pm. I rub her feet and play video games on my phone.
Then Ewen knows that 9pm is when he hast to stop his video games and at 9:45 he has to come off his computer and come to bed. Last night he was very good about stopping Agario at 9pm (I put up a paper in his room about when Agario can and can not be played so he knew I was serious about this). He was good about stopping at 9pm then and didn't try to argue with me at 9:45pm. He was anxious and it took him about half an hour of sitting up and gulping and huffing, but he finally wen to sleep and it wasn't full of panic.
Tonight though, he brushed his teeth while I sat on his bed at 9:45 then he came to bed and I lay down with him and hugged him while playing the Pandora station, "Kids Sleep Music" on my phone. I imagined all my calmness and happiness and good energy flowing into him from my hug. He fell asleep with no panic or distress in about 5 minutes.
After he went to sleep and I came out to the living room to sit on the couch with DH. I couldn't believe it was before 10pm and he was asleep. It probably has something to do with the fact that he woke up from a weird dream at 7am this morning so he was tired. But still...he wasn't plagued by the anxiety tonight for the first time in ages. I wonder if it is the Inositol that is helping the most with that. I have gradually upped the dosage to 2 scoops, 4 times a day, taken at the same time as his propranolol. I did that because I saw in my notes that anytime something good had happened, it was after I gave him inositol, and when something bad happened I hadn't given him any or had missed a dose. I think that now that he has been taking it regularly...upping the amount over 4 weeks, that it is helping. We still want to do the Prozac because we want our kid back and the Inositol is helping but he still isn't relaxed and comfortable enough to go to the grocery store for more than 5 minutes, or feel good about going away from the house for long periods of time.
Tonight I was so worried about the hives thing that I took an Ativan (which I do very rarely..maybe 1 every 6 months when things are good). I just wanted to sleep tonight without waking up worrying constantly. I can't call his Dr. tomorrow to ask about the hives and if it is OK or not because tomorrow is MLK day and so the office is closed. I read that if you get hives this is serious side effect and you should stop taking Prozac. I also read that hives and itchiness is considered a mild side effect that you can talk to your Dr about if it bothers you. He only had the hives for half an hour today...and two days ago he also had hives for half an hour. He looked ill and flushed while he had them, but tonight after I saw the hives on his chest and forehead, he was able to eat dinner at Grandmas and eat tons of apple pie too. Then we had to leave after only being there an hour because he needed to be at home. I love that he ate with us all at the dinner table and was able to swallow his food too.
I don't know what to do but I hope we are able to continue the Prozac since it feels like we are on a path back to something positive. If we stop the Prozac we are back to stage 1 but we will do what we need to do. Ewen's Dr. said that he has other SSRI's to try if Prozac isn't right for his system.
We will see how tomorrow goes. I'll only give him 2ML's.
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