Family: Tweaking

So, you can imagine my response to Timothy's doctor when he said, "let's tweak his medication for the next two weeks to see what happens."  The reason for this tweak phase is because we are concerned that the medicine may not be doing what it is supposed to.  It is supposed to help him focus, lessen anxiety so he can learn and grow.  It is amazing - in just two days of tweaking, we have seen two positive changes - he is sleeping better and eating more.  A year ago, Timothy was really long and almost too lean.  Often times, stimulants can decrease appetite and disrupt sleep.  So the tweaking impact has helped in these two areas while at the same time, we are still not ready to judge if his behavior, focus and overall-functionality has changed for the better or worse.  I think it is safe to say that it takes a few days for the extended release medications to vacate the bloodstream and he still is taking two non-stimulant medications for ADHD and anxiety.  Maybe these two medicines alone could be enough?  Wouldn't that be amazing if we could actually lower the amount of medication that he takes?  So often parents want to pack on the meds, add on and inadvertently or unintentionally over-medicate to a certain degree.  And at times, we have been almost game for that too.  But thanks to the experience and guidance of Timothy's doctor, we actually have lessened the medication as least for now.  So why does this all really matter?  Well it is spring break for Timothy so the impact on him and us was a concern.  In hindsight even though we are only on day three it has not been too bad.  Despite the tweaking we have visited the Aquarium, we went to the park for the first run around on the playground for 2014, we went swimming at the Y and today and tomorrow our goals are to start a garden inside to be transplanted outside when it warms up and to go skiing. Fun times for sure.  Stay tuned for further tweaks to the tweaking.