Enjoy the Fireworks

Okay.  You need to read these.

http://unstrangemind.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/no-you-dont/

http://theunknowncontributor.blogspot.com/2013/02/compliance-and-special-needs.html



Elise is is a firecracker.  She is not an easy child by any stretch of the imagination.  And the primary difficulty is not even the Down Syndrome most of the time.  Her two biggest challenges do not even include the mental deficits that she operates under.  Her two biggest challenges, for me, are the lack of verbal communication and her sensory issues.  I can put on her pants and her shoes and brush her teeth for the next 20 years and it won't be nearly as emotionally exhausting as not being able to understand her feelings or her flipping out because she doesn't like how her boots feel when she is wearing a certain pair of socks.  And if you add those two together, sensory triggers and not being able to talk about them, it is a recipe for an eye twitch.


This time 2 years ago, we had been pushed to the limits with her impulsivity.  Although we have absolutely known that she has ADHD since she was a tiny thing, it had really started interfering with learning and we finally had to do medication...we had already exhausted all natural and behavioral routes.   We had a terrible time finding a med that worked and didn't take her inherent "Elise-ness".  I am ALL about her being calm enough to learn and not hit friends, but I can't take away her fire...even if it made my day easier.  She was a shell of a person.  A empty husk of her very SELF on several meds.  She would sit there with a vacant look in her eyes.  She wasn't jumping from subject to activity in 4 seconds flat, and she certainly was more compliant, but she was sad and emotionally vacant, too.  And that's just not okay.  We have found a medication that works for us.  It really doesn't fix her issues.  And that's okay with us.  It just barely takes the edge off...it buys her 30 seconds of thinking, and gives her the option to decide against an impulse...sometimes...but it's enough for now.

It is funny that I am seeing these posts now.  I am again facing fatigue with her abrupt decisions, and the temptation was pricking me, "Wouldn't it be easier," it said, "if I didn't have to fight her all morning, every morning...??"  Especially as her little sister seems to be following in her sensory footsteps??  I toyed with going back to her neurologist, and asking if we could try stuff...again...and had quashed that temptation, just last week...and then these posts went up, and I am encouraged that I made the abominably exhausting, yet RIGHT decision...

So, thank you, my fellow bloggers for sharing!  And those who think I should try something else?  Sorry.  That's just too bad.  Enjoy the show.  For my Firecracker is as she should be.