Abilify

[katiekat]

Sean has had FIVE good days in a row at school. This has never, ever, ever happened. Gooooo Abilify!

[mary2]

Wow KK! Those are awesome news!

I am very happy for you and Sean.

[lcdc1]

that is cool, I bet he feels better about it all too. Has it improved at home also? Is he having any negative side effects from the medication?

[bugsmom]

Doing the happy dance...

[katiekat]

I have noticed some changes at home. Basically he is not running around the house like he is on fire. He is calmer and talking less. He has not complained of any side effects but I have noticed about 45 minutes after he takes it until he goes to bed he appears "stoned." I swear when I look at him the song "Comfortably Numb" starts playing in my head. In the morning that is gone but he is more sedate than usual. Which is a good thing. His hyperactivity without the meds is off the charts.
His teacher also noted in his communication book that he has been more "solemn" than usual. I think that it is bizarre to see him talking less b/c he talks so excessively.
He knows that there is a change because of all the good reports at school but this is what he said to me this morning-I havent been having good days because of the medicine, the medicine doesn help me at all, it's just my decision to be good. I assure you this is not an original thought and he is repeating what someone told him-the grandparents or the bio. mother.

[puzzled]

Though it stinks that his bio-mom is putting thoughts like that in his head, it is wonderful that the med seems to be toning him down to a more tolerable level.

When the bio-mom or grandma says that to you or your hubby, you need to say, "Well, isn't it just a nice happy coincidence that after YEARS of us trying everything else, he chose to make the decision to behave the VERY day we started giving the meds!"

[charliegirl]

YooHoo!


Did the dr say that appearing stoned would go away as he adjusted to being on it? He may not need quite as much as he is getting. Does he seem happy on it?

[katiekat]

I will have to ask the dr. when we go next week for the med check if it will stop making him so "stoned" after a while. Perhaps it is wearing off all together because he did not have such a good day in school today. Not staying in seat & talking again. The usual.
As far as him being happy I cannot answer that because he rarely expresses emotion. I don't know what the correct word is...maybe flat. He was never a happy-go-lucky kid. Even when you know that something makes him happy, like he got something he wanted he just does not show joy.

[charliegirl]

Oh no! I hope it just needs tweaking.

Is there a chance he would be sneaky enough to not actually swallow the pill? If he doesn't like the way it makes him feel and believes it isn't working, he wouldn't be the first kid to pretend to swallow.

[katiekat]

He definitely took it last night because he was wacked out from it until he went to sleep. Now this afternoon at home he was more hyper than he has been in the past week. Tonight when he took he didnt get that "stoned" reaction-in fact he never calmed back down. I told my h that his hyperness fought a battle with the abilify. The abilify was the toughest opponent yet and it took a week but the hyperness finally overtook the abilify.
I hope today was just a fluke.