It has been a crazy week. Well ...it's been a crazy summer but I will focus on this week for then purposes of this blog entry. Just over a week ago I took my son Joshua to his main prescribing doctor to get a prescription refill written and discuss his growing anxiety issues. Up until last week, Joshua was taking a total of 6 different medications which he needed in the last years for various issues. We as his parents resisted meds for years until it became evident that he needed them. He could not continue to function properly without them so off we embarked on the scary journey of adding some serious drugs to Joshua's daily treatment and routine. Joshua having been born with Kabuki syndrome was showing symptoms of severe ADHD ,OCD , anxiety, sleep disorder, tics and the list goes on. We dealt with each issue individually and mixed and matched his medication cocktail until we found the right balance for him. As he grew the issues would change and some would increase so up went the doses and number of meds. The number has climbed to what I think is a scary number of meds so I discussed this with his doctor who agreed that it is time for review . One morning last week I forgot to give Joshua his morning meds in the hustle and bustle of the morning. I finally remembered to give his doses to him at 11 am. He would normally get them as soon as he was awake and downstairs not allowing time for me to see a before and after. That morning was different. Joshua awoke calm and focussed and happy that morning and remained that way until 11:30 ish . Within a half hour of him getting his doses he became almost suddenly and increasingly anxious and agitated. The worry was remarkably pronounced. His drugs that he was taking to keep him from being anxious was having the opposite effect. Well, at least one of them was. Off to the doc we went and she agreed that it was time to reconsider his drug routine. Her suggestion was that she thought his Ritalin (methylphenadate) was the likely culprit and it was time to take him off. I was told that cold turkey was the way to go and that it was safe so that was the plan. I went home and skipped his afternoon dose of ritalin but gave him the rest of his meds as planned. Next day, no Ritalin again at all and it was a good day. Day three, same thing and it was a great morning with a happy giggly focussed child but by night fall a bit of anxiety kicked in along with fatigue...extreme fatigue. I did not even need his sleep meds to get him to sleep . For the next week my child would have bipolar ups and downs back and forth between focus and silly moments of contentment and worry. That was expected but what I did not expect that I should have was the energy crash of being taken off of what essentially was prescribed speed. His body no longer had the stimulant of the drug and crashed in a profound way making him unable to stay awake most of the day for much of the week. We still had glimpses of happy giggly Joshua but only between moments of fogginess. Even today we are seeing much improvement and he was more alert than before with each day getting better but we have been a whole week with no sleep meds( a good thing ) bouts of anxiety and giggliness combined and a 10 year old boy that was made to go through detox with no warning of what was to come in regards to withdrawal symptoms and how to cope.An oversight on his doctors part as well as mine as his mom.I knew Ritalin was speed but trusted that the doctor knew what was safe in how to take him off the medication.I do. Ot doubt that cold turkey was a safe method of detox but I would have liked to have been more prepared and educated about the effects of withdrawal from tbis drug. I have been journaling the whole week and will take this information back to the doctor and ask some serious and obvious questions. Do I regret putting Joshua on Ritalin all these years? NO...not in the least. It gave him some coping ability to help I'm focuss and learn. Do I think we made the right choice taking him off of it now? Heck yeah. Do I think I should have been more informed about the withdrawal effects? Of course. This journey is not over and it will likely take at least another week for Joshua to detox and level off before we can move forward with changing or removing any other meds . I am optimistic in what these changes will mean for Joshua.I am also cautious about making any future changes without asking more questions.I want to add as a footnote that I have a lot of trust in this physician. I take much responsibility for not knowing how this would effect Joshua. Next time I will ask more questions. I still think this information could have been volunteered but I still trust this doctor to treat my son. It has been her care and experience that has helped us get Joshua to be balanced enough to be the focussed boy he is in comparison to how he was before she started treating him.
This has been a learning experience and I am so proud of my little man for going through something that most if not all adults would have a really tough time of it. We know that a street drug addict or prescription drug addict would go through hell in a detox centre trying to kick the need for drugs.Here is my son at age 10 being forced to detox with no control over how detox will happen and with little understanding of what his body and mind are going through and why.He just took it like a man and that makes me proud.
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