(Week 12 of prozac, 4ml's given at 4pm and .25 mg of Clonidine given at 8pm.)
I talked to Ewen's psychiatrist yesterday and he said that we should try Clonidine to help Ewen get to sleep at night and to clam his tics.
He called in the prescription right away and I picked it up and came home and read about it, for hours. I read some rave reviews from parents with ticking ADHD kids, and then I looked up side effects and found some horrific information.
So I didn't give it to Ewen last night because I wasn't sure if it was worth it, for many reasons, including the fact that it is dangerous to miss a dose, and that he is happy. I thought that maybe we can just work every night for an hour or more to get him to sleep and that would just be it. But last night, seeing him wanting so badly to relax but his body movements and restless legs and jerking movements just wouldn't let him. He was in destress about it. So I decided that we would instead of trying 1/2 of the .1mg pill, that we would try only a 1/4 of the pill.
So we gave it to him tonight at 8pm and just that tiny, tiny amount gave him a headache, but also gave him some major relaxation and release from the worst of the tics. He had some Ibuprofen, which was sombering for Mike and me to give even more medication to our young son. But his headache went away and he fell asleep with just a little huffing, and he fell asleep in about 5-10 minutes. It was amazing to sit on the side of his bed and see him relax. But I mustn't get my hopes up because it is highly possibly that this medication will also trigger sadness/depression in him like both the Propranolol and the Guanfacine did. I'm hoping not and taking that chance. If it does, we will just stop...after making his pill even tinier I suppose. But my hope is that since it is such a tiny dose that it will help with the sleep thing and not affect much else. I don't care about during the day. I know he doesn't like having tics during the day but he is able to stay distracted and happy. I just hope, hope this doesn't affect his happiness and we can have something that will help him rest at night and go to sleep without awful, major involuntary movements for up to an hour and a half until he finally drops off.
I read something that you should never counter the side effects of one medication with another, unless it was a highly necessary medication that was giving the side effects. After talking to Ewen's doctor yesterday, he made it clear that the Prozac was highly necessary for Ewen and that we shouldn't go lower than 4 ml's. So this is what we are doing and trying and I hope we are doing the right thing for our beautiful amazing boy who deserves a bit of happiness and some peace and comfort during his adolescent years, but also deserves for us to preserve his body and his brain with great care so that he also has a safe and healthy adulthood.
I talked to Ewen's psychiatrist yesterday and he said that we should try Clonidine to help Ewen get to sleep at night and to clam his tics.
He called in the prescription right away and I picked it up and came home and read about it, for hours. I read some rave reviews from parents with ticking ADHD kids, and then I looked up side effects and found some horrific information.
So I didn't give it to Ewen last night because I wasn't sure if it was worth it, for many reasons, including the fact that it is dangerous to miss a dose, and that he is happy. I thought that maybe we can just work every night for an hour or more to get him to sleep and that would just be it. But last night, seeing him wanting so badly to relax but his body movements and restless legs and jerking movements just wouldn't let him. He was in destress about it. So I decided that we would instead of trying 1/2 of the .1mg pill, that we would try only a 1/4 of the pill.
So we gave it to him tonight at 8pm and just that tiny, tiny amount gave him a headache, but also gave him some major relaxation and release from the worst of the tics. He had some Ibuprofen, which was sombering for Mike and me to give even more medication to our young son. But his headache went away and he fell asleep with just a little huffing, and he fell asleep in about 5-10 minutes. It was amazing to sit on the side of his bed and see him relax. But I mustn't get my hopes up because it is highly possibly that this medication will also trigger sadness/depression in him like both the Propranolol and the Guanfacine did. I'm hoping not and taking that chance. If it does, we will just stop...after making his pill even tinier I suppose. But my hope is that since it is such a tiny dose that it will help with the sleep thing and not affect much else. I don't care about during the day. I know he doesn't like having tics during the day but he is able to stay distracted and happy. I just hope, hope this doesn't affect his happiness and we can have something that will help him rest at night and go to sleep without awful, major involuntary movements for up to an hour and a half until he finally drops off.
I read something that you should never counter the side effects of one medication with another, unless it was a highly necessary medication that was giving the side effects. After talking to Ewen's doctor yesterday, he made it clear that the Prozac was highly necessary for Ewen and that we shouldn't go lower than 4 ml's. So this is what we are doing and trying and I hope we are doing the right thing for our beautiful amazing boy who deserves a bit of happiness and some peace and comfort during his adolescent years, but also deserves for us to preserve his body and his brain with great care so that he also has a safe and healthy adulthood.
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