This is Slim. Slim is currently 8 years old and paroled from school on bad behavior. Wait, not his bad behavior, he's an angel. Well, no, not quite, but it was bad behavior all the way around the spectrum: his behavior, my behavior, his father's behavior, his doctor's behavior, and the school's behavior.
As I get further into the blog and the Saving Slim process, I'll go further back in time and try to piece it all together for you. If you've got the stomach for it. If I have the stomach for it. But for now, I'll pick it up in Kindergarten, just two years ago.
Due to his fidgeting and lack of focus, Slim was having issues in Kindergarten. Then his ego tanked and he was convinced that Santa Claus wouldn't bring anything for him because he was a bad kid. Gut wrenching, I went to a parent/teacher conference with Slim's forty year kindergarten veteran teacher. Go talk to your doctor, she said. He'll just make sure everything is okay.
So off to our trusted physician we went. Together we tried to find the right medication for Slim. When he ran out of ideas a year later, he sent us to the local ADD/ADHD pediatrician guru. We were given the Daytrana patch.
Fast forward another year. I make an appointment to see the doc. I plead my case that Slim is getting 1s and 2s in class (the rank is 1 for monster, 4 for good, and 5 for leader) and has turned aggressive. I am told that it is common for kids who take medication to have ODD, Oppositional Defiance Disorder. I asked, "Don't we just call that side effects?" And off I was shooed with a prescription to soothe the beast that the Daytrana had honed.
So, we have the Daytrana patch (which isn't called the Ritalin patch because some parents won't use Ritalin, cause you know, it might have a bad wrap, but is the same medication: methylphenidate) and now a prescription for night time that is guanfacine (Tenex or Intuniv).
I politely took the prescriptions, paid my bill, flipped the bird as I drove out of the parking lot, and decided to save Slim myself. It's what I should have been doing all along.
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