It seems that some of the jitteriness and spaciness and some huffing has come back this afternoon/evening after being off the Guanfacine for 2 days now. It still isn't as bad as it was last week but I think the lingering effects of the Guanfacine are just wearing off and so Ewen is going back to huffing and ticking. I suggested to Mike that we give Ewen just 1/4 mg of Guanfacine at night before bed, then it will be in his system and it will have worn off enough to not make him sullen the next day, since it is supposed to wear off in 6 hours. But Mike didn't want to do it. He wants to see how Ewen is tomorrow without the Guanfacine again and if the huffing stays at bay, he doesn't want to use the Guanfacine at all anymore. I think that the Guanfacine helped with Ewen not seeming so fight or flight all the time. I think we should have given it to him this evening but I can't ignore Mike's intuition either and so we will give it another day without it. I really don't like stopping and starting though. It seems to me that if it is likely that we will try it again but at a different time, that we should do it now. Also, I want to do it while Ewen is on Spring Break and out of school.
I hate using my son as a human chemistry set but once we get it right then we can just forget about tweaking meds all the time and just live...I hope.
One of our friends today asked if it was ok that we do our own tweaking rather than listening to the doctor. I told him that one day I called Ewen's psychiatrist about Ewen's Prozac and I described what was good and working and what was strange and confusing and troubling. The psychiatrist finally told me that I was Ewen's mother and that I was with him the most, so if I can tell that this medicine is not right for his little system, that he as a doctor would trust my observations and that we could just stop the medication. But if I thought it was helping Ewen, then I could decide to continue to give him the Prozac.
After that conversation I felt quite burdened with this huge decision, but I realized that these medicines are mysteries to everyone and each child responds differently to how, when, and how much is given, differently than the next child. So mom has to observe closely and do the right thing.
So now I wonder if just 1/4 of this stuff in the evening will be the right amount and time. I'm not sure if just stopping it for good or for more than 2 days then just starting it again, is OK or not. I don't like that. I wish I would have given him 1/4 tonight while his body is still used to it. Anyway, perhaps it will all be OK.
One other thing that I read tonight, while researching laxative options for my 7-year-old, was how it is believed that Mirilax may cause psychological problems such as tics and anxiety among other things. Ewen was on Mirilax for a year when he was a baby, aged 18 months to 2 and a half. It helped him very much with his constipation but did it also mess with his brain so that the anxiety was triggered at age 10?
Medicine is scary stuff. We can never just have one side without the other, can we? So we choose what has been the most studied and the lesser of the evil's if possible, and hold our breath. I do want to add though that the Buspar continues to be an amazing help for my 13-year-old daughter who has lots of anxiety (not accuse like Ewen's was but it was very hard for her). The Buspar has reduced her anxiety so much that she is able to be very social this spring break and have a fantastic time. She has had no side effects with it either.
I hate using my son as a human chemistry set but once we get it right then we can just forget about tweaking meds all the time and just live...I hope.
One of our friends today asked if it was ok that we do our own tweaking rather than listening to the doctor. I told him that one day I called Ewen's psychiatrist about Ewen's Prozac and I described what was good and working and what was strange and confusing and troubling. The psychiatrist finally told me that I was Ewen's mother and that I was with him the most, so if I can tell that this medicine is not right for his little system, that he as a doctor would trust my observations and that we could just stop the medication. But if I thought it was helping Ewen, then I could decide to continue to give him the Prozac.
After that conversation I felt quite burdened with this huge decision, but I realized that these medicines are mysteries to everyone and each child responds differently to how, when, and how much is given, differently than the next child. So mom has to observe closely and do the right thing.
So now I wonder if just 1/4 of this stuff in the evening will be the right amount and time. I'm not sure if just stopping it for good or for more than 2 days then just starting it again, is OK or not. I don't like that. I wish I would have given him 1/4 tonight while his body is still used to it. Anyway, perhaps it will all be OK.
One other thing that I read tonight, while researching laxative options for my 7-year-old, was how it is believed that Mirilax may cause psychological problems such as tics and anxiety among other things. Ewen was on Mirilax for a year when he was a baby, aged 18 months to 2 and a half. It helped him very much with his constipation but did it also mess with his brain so that the anxiety was triggered at age 10?
Medicine is scary stuff. We can never just have one side without the other, can we? So we choose what has been the most studied and the lesser of the evil's if possible, and hold our breath. I do want to add though that the Buspar continues to be an amazing help for my 13-year-old daughter who has lots of anxiety (not accuse like Ewen's was but it was very hard for her). The Buspar has reduced her anxiety so much that she is able to be very social this spring break and have a fantastic time. She has had no side effects with it either.
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