The ADHD Adventure

Today I'm sharing the adventures of my Son, now 10, who at 5 was given a diagnosis of ADHD. That diagnosis came from his pediatrician and was accompanied by a prescription for a med commonly used to treat the symptoms of ADHD. Being a bit in the dark on how it all works, and well, I'll admit it now, ashamed of the whole situation. I took the prescription gave the meds as directed and called it happy. I did no research, I did no after care, besides every 3 months going for a weight check. Side effect of the meds is loss of appetite. He's already thin, so this doesn't help. We were sailing along the not so smooth seas of life, but no one knew about the tantrums, outbursts, threats or fears that were part of the "behind the scenes" of our life. So all was well enough. Then, something happened. I'm blaming hormones. A few months ago he started having outbursts at school. Threatening violence, attempting to provoke others into fights. Still, nothing outward violent against others. Yes, you guessed it, the other shoe dropped. In a 10 day span, that included 3-1/2 days out due to suspension he kicked,bit or hit others, and threatened the type of violence that brings in police, at school. The escalation to violence outside the home forced my hand, if you will. We saw the pediatrician for a referral, and shortly after began the process of diagnosis and treatment for my son with a Psychiatrist. It is ADHD. As it turns out, those 4 little letters mean A LOT more than can't sit still and focus at school. I'm now a google and wikipedia expert. In the last 10 days we have assessed that we are dealing with severe ADHD, with mild OCD, and Anxiety.  The Psychiatrist we are seeing specializes in kids with ADHD, and uses something called the TOVA testing for medication dosing. Basically, we started out on no meds, Drew took the test (it's a computer thing), and we got our baseline, then we started with 5mg of a medication. No change in testing, so we tried 10mg, no change in testing. We went back a day later with a different medication, no change in testing. We've done this 5 different times, no change. The cognitive level the test shows, my DS shouldn't be able to tie shoes, which he does, let alone read, which he does. So what's the issue. Today, in discussion of the latest results a conversation between Drew and Doc it became apparent that Drew is "blacking out" or "zoning" during the test. We will test again Monday with a selected dosage of  meds, if the results are the same, we will go for an EEG. The suspect, petit mal seizures. No, really, that's not frightening at all. Sigh.

Beating the clock

Saturday I ran the Rose Bowl Triathlon in Pasadena. My last 2 races I was in the 2 hour 15 minute range. I wanted to beat 2 hours today. I'm still slow on the run, my split was 46 minutes and change. I look forward to breaking the 30minute 5k mark. My legs and lungs need to learn to work together better. This race it was all about the bicycle. I've been practicing my gears some. Not enough for smooth automatic transitions. But, enough that I knew to go to smaller gears for hills and larger for straight / down hill. My previous split for the bike was just over an hour. Today I broke the 1 hour mark! My transition from run to bike wasn't too bad. My transition from bike to swim was a sad 4 minutes. My legs were pissed at me. I'd pushed the bike hard. My swim was a respectable 5 minutes 37 seconds. My total time? Yes!!! 1 hour 54 minutes and 2 seconds 1:54:02) I'm a happy camper!!! And to any who heard any of "those" words I mumbled on the bike course hills, I apologize. ;)

Running, how it all began

This post is dedicated to my dear friends Stephanie, and Joe. For it is because of them that I am able to shamelessly brag that I have in 6 months, run 3 5K's, 4 half marathons, and 3 Sprint Triathlons.
It all started in August of 2012. I watched on Facebook as my friend Joe finished a half marathon at Disneyland. He posted fantastic photos, and made me dream of being able to do that. At the time, I was unhealthy. My weight was a serious issue. My asthma was aggravated by the weight, and my heart was not liking the extra meds for the asthma. All in all I was a mess. I kept trying the gym, but it's a scary place for skinny people or body builders. I am neither. 
Fast forward about a year, and I've now become friends with Stephanie. She's an amazing person, who has through running, lost a lot of weight and become very healthy. I truly, deeply admire her. In August of 2013 she challenged me to do a 5K at an event that she was running the 10K. I accepted the challenge and began using the C25K iphone app. I run/walked the race and finished with a respectable 48 minute time. Not too shabby for a girl who couldn't carry a laundry basket upstairs 3 weeks earlier. A week goes by and Stephanie reports that she has strep and can not run the Long Beach half marathon. I take her bib and do it in her place. I have 2 weeks to prepare. That is NOT enough time. But, I am a determined person, so I just do it. I ran portions, and walked more, and in the end I finished in 4 hours and 42 seconds. My Goal was 4 hours. I'll take it! I succeeded and didn't die!!! I also fell in love! I wanted to do more. I wanted to do better. So I signed up to run the Tinker Bell half. It has a 5k the day before. Why not? It's a fun run/walk. Done. I walked the entirety of it. My finish, a respectable 3:36, I was doing it!! In between those two races I decided I wanted to try a triathlon. But I knew I couldn't do THOSE distances. So I found Sprint triathlons. 5k run, 15mile bike ride and a 250 meter swim. In December I finished my 1st triathlon 2 hours 30 minutes. Not too bad. I didn't finish last. But I was close to last. But I finished!! Somewhere between that and running Tinker Bell I found an app that gives me dates and places of local runs. Between that and my friends I found more races. I'm now 3 races away from completing an amazing, to me, 4 half marathons, 4 5k's, and 4 triathlons in 6 months. I have become a runner and a triathlete. My last half marathon, I broke the 3 hour 3 minute wall. My time was 3 hours 27 minutes. My next race is in 4 days. Another triathlon. My goal is to be under 2 hours. I'll let ya know how I do.

Returning to blogging

I'm going to give this blog thing another try. While I will continue to post about my kids and the fun and silliness that is being the mom of 4. I will also be writing more about a new personal journey. I'm now a runner. I started walking in August 2012. In September I ran my 1st half marathon. In December I ran my first Sprint Triathlon. I hope you'll enjoy the adventure with me.
-Jen

Lessons Learned

Things I've learned recently.

A child with any level of curiosity in a car with electric seat adjustment AND an in dashboard GPS will NOT be able to focus on homework.

Dogs can "talk" it's not speaking as we do, but there was no denying the noises Bella made the last two days when she had her sweater put on and was leashed to go for a walk with Trudy and I. (note to self, walking the dogs is good for them too!!)

Children, when properly motivated can accomplish just about anything!!! While steadily improving Tori has never been a super academic student. Then we started horseback riding classes. She presented me with ALL her homework finished and ready to turn in, forms to be signed and a written list of needs for science class before the lights out panic attack!

Having no dirty clothes does not mean the laundry is finished. Sigh, I'm about to go fold and put away a lot of clothes!!! I'm also going to go through my son's clothes. He'll forgive me. Someday.

Eating for health can taste good, it just takes a little more time to plan and prepare. I'm learning to cook from scratch and really loving it!

Coming back to the blog

It's been a while since I've been here. So long, in fact, that I had to reset my password having completely forgotten what it was. I was avoiding some chores this morning, and reading some friends blogs and decided I might try this again. So here I am.
Since my last entry I've married DBF, so awesome!
The kids are all a bit older, Beth graduated from HS!!! And now the younger 3 are enjoying the beginnings of the new year, we are experiencing 8th, 6th, and 3rd grades respectively. I'm still subbing and managing the properties my family rents out. I've added Hubby's house to the list, we're in the get it cleaned up and ready stages for his house. Hoping to list it by November. It'll only be 2 years later than we wanted.

I'll be back when I have more whimsical things to say, and someone can explain to the kids that the laundry doesn't do itself. :o)

Tears a Disney weekend and teaching.

This past weekend I had the kids, minus Beth. She traded a weekend so was with her Dad. The 3 littles requested a sleepover at Nana and Pawpaw's. So I had a Friday night with no kids. So my bf and I headed to see the Mids. A fun cover band, made up of jr. high school teachers. I work with or for several of these teachers. It's fun to see them and all the other "school" folk outside of school. We stayed until about 11:30 and I was done. Came home and snuggled before going to bed. Saturday the kids were scheduled to stay and Nana and Pawpaw's as dbf and I had a memorial service to attend. One of our church choir family passed away earlier in the week. Janet will be dearly missed!!! That was the tears.
After recovering from that by eating more cookies than I should have at the reception, we picked up the kids and headed to Disney. Nothing like Mickey and company to make you feel better!! The kids all wanted to ride Splash Mountain. I did not. So dbf, who will do this ride anytime, any weather condition, rode with them! Thank you honey!!! I really just did not want to get wet. I waited at the exit after they went into the building. They didn't get soaked, but they were all wet-ish. Tori didn't like it, and swears she'll never ride it again. She said the same thing about Indiana Jones, and now loves that ride, so I'll give her 6months and see what she says. Katie and Drew loved it. After that we all rode Alice in Wonderland, and then went to dinner at Pizza Port (the kids LOVE this restaurant). After dinner we agreed it was time to go home. So we rode the train from Tomorrow land to Main street and headed home.
Sunday was church and Superbowl, it was a good game, though I'm really sorry the Steelers won, and sad the Cardinals lost. But it was fun to watch. The kids played while I watched the game. We tried to do the pool, but the water was too cold. So after that they watched movies. It was a good night. It was a good weekend.
Yesterday I worked half day, I've been working in SDC's which are special ed. classes for mild to moderate students. Mostly they are autistic or downs syndrome. Yesterday I was in a Moderate to severe. WOW, first it makes me soooo grateful for my healthy children!! Second it was FUN! I played with D. she's 9, has cerebral palsy and other stuff, she's in a special wheel chair, and cannot talk or eat. Yes, we played. The game was get My hand. The goal was to have her touch my hand on the tray of her chair wherever I placed it. When she didn't get me in "time" I tickled her knee or hands. We had a blast!!! E. who has mild CP and other issues bounced with me, this is an exercise for him to keep his mobility. He can sort of communicate, and between his attempts at speech and his actions his aide and I got that he really liked me, and wants me to come back. I won't bore you all with the rest of the kids, but I had a great time. Though I was nervous when i first went in and saw the kids, I wasn't sure I could handle the situation. I'm so glad I got that call and did it. It was a blast.

Ok, I'm off to be productive today. Have a good everyone.