jenndyson
New Member
I've just joined this group and am thrilled to find others going through many of the same things our family has. As an introduction, I'd like to give a brief recount of our son's life thus far.
"E" as we call him is now 5 years old. He was difficult from birth....developmentally delayed, fussy, etc. At 3 months old we found that he had a massive hole in his heart and suffered from tachycardia. Right before his 3rd birthday, the hole was repaired via open heart surgery and the tachycardia melted away on its own. One would think that would be enough but then the behavior problems only worsened with age.
Every visit to the pediatrician I would proclaim that something just wasn't right....he's too aggressive, too demanding only to be placated with "he's a boy and very young. he'll grow out of it". But as the years went by and schools asked him to leave I knew it was much more. So I jumped over the pediatrician and took him to a psychiatrist last fall. After many hours of testing, we were given a diagnosis of extreme ADHD, ODD and bipolar with a possibility of Aspergers in January. According to the psychologist who did the evaluations, E is so young and developmentally delayed that the bipolar or Aspergers are hard to pinpoint. So he went with a bipolar diagnosis because E exhibited many more of those symptoms than the Aspergers. E is very demanding, attention seeking, defiant, aggressive, unfocused....ADHD and ODD. One minute, hour, day or even week he is happy and loving but that is subject to change with no triggers that we have yet to find, aggressive towards animals, exhibits hypersexuality on occasion....bipolar. He also hates tags, is particular about placement of things (sometimes), loathes extremely loud noises and is a whiz at puzzles and on the computer....Aspergers.
His current medications include Concerta and guanfacine. The Concerta is doing a great job of keeping him focused but the guanfacine seems to be wearing off and the aggression is coming back tenfold. We have an appointment next week with the psychiatrist and I hope we will be changing off of that one on to something new. I really hate having to medicate him since he was medicated for so long for the heart conditions but the medications truly have helped. And after trying everything to avoid medications to no avail I've concluded that sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
We battled the school system (big time) and he is now in a special needs class with one of the most amazing teachers ever. She truly was my Christmas gift this past year and I tell her so constantly. E's reading and writing have improved dramatically during the past few months and under her supervision he is functioning in a regular classroom for short periods of time.
And though things have been going great the past few months, he seems to have "flipped" again. He is extremely defiant towards just about anything I say, attacks his 8 year old sister whenever she crosses his path and has begun hitting and pinching us again. We met with a psychotherapist last week and have another appointment next week so that's getting started but in the meantime I feel as though I'm losing ground quickly. How can things go so well only to fall completely back into disarray so fast? Bipolar is my only answer because all my reading shows ODD being more consistent.
Anyway. That's our story in a large nutshell. I have many questions and look forward to hearing from and reading the stories of others dealing with similar issues.
"E" as we call him is now 5 years old. He was difficult from birth....developmentally delayed, fussy, etc. At 3 months old we found that he had a massive hole in his heart and suffered from tachycardia. Right before his 3rd birthday, the hole was repaired via open heart surgery and the tachycardia melted away on its own. One would think that would be enough but then the behavior problems only worsened with age.
Every visit to the pediatrician I would proclaim that something just wasn't right....he's too aggressive, too demanding only to be placated with "he's a boy and very young. he'll grow out of it". But as the years went by and schools asked him to leave I knew it was much more. So I jumped over the pediatrician and took him to a psychiatrist last fall. After many hours of testing, we were given a diagnosis of extreme ADHD, ODD and bipolar with a possibility of Aspergers in January. According to the psychologist who did the evaluations, E is so young and developmentally delayed that the bipolar or Aspergers are hard to pinpoint. So he went with a bipolar diagnosis because E exhibited many more of those symptoms than the Aspergers. E is very demanding, attention seeking, defiant, aggressive, unfocused....ADHD and ODD. One minute, hour, day or even week he is happy and loving but that is subject to change with no triggers that we have yet to find, aggressive towards animals, exhibits hypersexuality on occasion....bipolar. He also hates tags, is particular about placement of things (sometimes), loathes extremely loud noises and is a whiz at puzzles and on the computer....Aspergers.
His current medications include Concerta and guanfacine. The Concerta is doing a great job of keeping him focused but the guanfacine seems to be wearing off and the aggression is coming back tenfold. We have an appointment next week with the psychiatrist and I hope we will be changing off of that one on to something new. I really hate having to medicate him since he was medicated for so long for the heart conditions but the medications truly have helped. And after trying everything to avoid medications to no avail I've concluded that sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
We battled the school system (big time) and he is now in a special needs class with one of the most amazing teachers ever. She truly was my Christmas gift this past year and I tell her so constantly. E's reading and writing have improved dramatically during the past few months and under her supervision he is functioning in a regular classroom for short periods of time.
And though things have been going great the past few months, he seems to have "flipped" again. He is extremely defiant towards just about anything I say, attacks his 8 year old sister whenever she crosses his path and has begun hitting and pinching us again. We met with a psychotherapist last week and have another appointment next week so that's getting started but in the meantime I feel as though I'm losing ground quickly. How can things go so well only to fall completely back into disarray so fast? Bipolar is my only answer because all my reading shows ODD being more consistent.
Anyway. That's our story in a large nutshell. I have many questions and look forward to hearing from and reading the stories of others dealing with similar issues.