So.....
I'm sure that people are probably wondering how things went with Joey yesterday. Well, here's the update....
Yesterday, I worked from 6am-10am, so that I only had to use 4 hours of sick time to be off for the afternoon for Joey's appointments.
10.30am ...
We show up at Old Westpot, which are ear, nose, throat and allergy specialists. As a matter of fact, they are the place that we took Joey to initially to have the tubes put in his ears when he was an infant due to the amount of ear infections he had gotten. The doctor that he saw, is a fracking crackhead. Joey was sitting there, playing with the stethoscope listening to his own heart. Joey looked at the doctor and asked him if Joey could listen to his(the doctor's) heart. The doctor looked at him, and without missing a beat said "No, I don't have a heart, at least that's what I've been told". We end up being there for all of about 20 minutes. The doctor wants us to record Joey's snoring so that he(the doctor) can determine if Joey is a candidate for having his tonsils and adenoids removed, or whether our pediatrician is smoking crack and that Joey's tonsils and adenoids are not really the issue issue. The whole reason we went to them was because our pediatrician thinks that maybe Joey's sufferring from sleep apnea, and so he's not getting a good night's sleep, and that's why he's been acting out so much. I, personally, think that idea is a bunch of bullshit, and that maybe the pediatrician WAS smoking crack when he suggested it, but I've no type of medical background, so I don't know for sure.
1.15pm...
Our meeting with the child psychologist was....interesting to say the least. She had a very easy time connecting with Joey on his level, and then explaining things to us as well. It's apparent to anyone who spends some time with Joey that he's pretty intelligent, and that he gets bored with things very easily. Apparently the child psychologist was at the end of her ropes with trying to get Joey to pay attention to her, but she was getting him to calm down and pay attention and listen to what she was telling him, so that's a good place to start. We also got a prescription for Ritalin for Joey, because I think at this point it's going to take a mixture of medication and behavioral thereapy to get him back to where he needs to be. Today he gets 1/2 a pill (5mg), then tomorrow he gets 1/2 a pill in the morning, then 1/2 a pill in the afternoon, and then we're supposed to try a whole pill in the morning and then 1/2 in the afternoon. I think we may trying the 1/2 morning 1/2 afternoon for a while, and see how he adjusts to it, and then maybe move up to a whole pill in the morning 1/2 in afternoon, or vice versa. The child psychologist said that it may take some tinkering around with the dosage, as far as whether he gets a whole pill in the morning, or in the afternoon, or maybe split up and gets 3 1/2 pill doses throughout the day.
Now, I'm not real big on medicating children as a way to solve problems. However, I also realize that something drastic is going to have to happen for Joey to calm down and learn the things that he needs to learn, to learn that there are things that he cannot and should not do, and how to change the behavior to the way that it needs to be. I'm just hoping that this actually works and things can get turned around for him.
Yesterday, I worked from 6am-10am, so that I only had to use 4 hours of sick time to be off for the afternoon for Joey's appointments.
10.30am ...
We show up at Old Westpot, which are ear, nose, throat and allergy specialists. As a matter of fact, they are the place that we took Joey to initially to have the tubes put in his ears when he was an infant due to the amount of ear infections he had gotten. The doctor that he saw, is a fracking crackhead. Joey was sitting there, playing with the stethoscope listening to his own heart. Joey looked at the doctor and asked him if Joey could listen to his(the doctor's) heart. The doctor looked at him, and without missing a beat said "No, I don't have a heart, at least that's what I've been told". We end up being there for all of about 20 minutes. The doctor wants us to record Joey's snoring so that he(the doctor) can determine if Joey is a candidate for having his tonsils and adenoids removed, or whether our pediatrician is smoking crack and that Joey's tonsils and adenoids are not really the issue issue. The whole reason we went to them was because our pediatrician thinks that maybe Joey's sufferring from sleep apnea, and so he's not getting a good night's sleep, and that's why he's been acting out so much. I, personally, think that idea is a bunch of bullshit, and that maybe the pediatrician WAS smoking crack when he suggested it, but I've no type of medical background, so I don't know for sure.
1.15pm...
Our meeting with the child psychologist was....interesting to say the least. She had a very easy time connecting with Joey on his level, and then explaining things to us as well. It's apparent to anyone who spends some time with Joey that he's pretty intelligent, and that he gets bored with things very easily. Apparently the child psychologist was at the end of her ropes with trying to get Joey to pay attention to her, but she was getting him to calm down and pay attention and listen to what she was telling him, so that's a good place to start. We also got a prescription for Ritalin for Joey, because I think at this point it's going to take a mixture of medication and behavioral thereapy to get him back to where he needs to be. Today he gets 1/2 a pill (5mg), then tomorrow he gets 1/2 a pill in the morning, then 1/2 a pill in the afternoon, and then we're supposed to try a whole pill in the morning and then 1/2 in the afternoon. I think we may trying the 1/2 morning 1/2 afternoon for a while, and see how he adjusts to it, and then maybe move up to a whole pill in the morning 1/2 in afternoon, or vice versa. The child psychologist said that it may take some tinkering around with the dosage, as far as whether he gets a whole pill in the morning, or in the afternoon, or maybe split up and gets 3 1/2 pill doses throughout the day.
Now, I'm not real big on medicating children as a way to solve problems. However, I also realize that something drastic is going to have to happen for Joey to calm down and learn the things that he needs to learn, to learn that there are things that he cannot and should not do, and how to change the behavior to the way that it needs to be. I'm just hoping that this actually works and things can get turned around for him.
posted by Tenchi-kun at 11:04 AM
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