Dad forgets to give Boy his medication - An ADHD post

I really want to take the time to create catagories for my blog. One of the reasons I write it is to share my experiences with my ADHD son.

So this morning I get an email from the 6th grader's teacher: On another note, B. did not get his medicine today, and we are certainly noticing a difference. I misunderstood, and did not realize he put a new patch on every day. I thought that they lasted longer than that. There were a few days last week, where his attention had not been as great as it had been. Now that I'm putting it all together, I'm wondering if he had forgotten on those days as well.

I call Hubby. He is driving to a job site. He forgot "And the bugger did not remind me." Hubby's not a morning person, but to his credit, they all usually get out of the house with most of the things they need. It is chaotic becasue usually the 6th grader's meds have not taken effect and he is mouthy. So I look at my calendar, it is open. It's a 50 mile drive home. How important is it? Well, he has a soccer game tonight. He is supposed to come home by himself, start homework and eat some dinner. He'll have trouble winding down to fall asleep becasue as the day gets longer, he'll become more and more hyper and wound up. Decision made, I tell my staff where I am going. I have a magic Blackberry so I will be reachable. I peck out "I will be there in about an hour" as a reply to the email. So I go careening up I-75.

So I arrive at school about 50 minutes later, patch and 10 mg pill of Focalin in hand. They call him down and Mrs. C comes too. We talk, She said she understood when I said he just gets worse as the day goes one. She could see the progression. She said she had just witnessed him trying to tie his shoes. He bent over and then forgot why he was down there. She said when she got my email she wondered what I knew might happen and if she would need a sub for the afternoon to recover from the experience. LOL. She was amazed at the difference between today and yesterday as to his behavior. I said the only demerits he ever got was the day he did not take his meds last year. He can get argumentative.

The school nurse was very interested in the patch. I told them it takes about 2 hours to kick in so I gave him a Focalin which should kick in in about 20 minutes to help until the patch worked it's magic. I left the package for the Daytrana patch with the nurse.

B. claimed he told Dad he did not have his patch. He probably did, but mornings are hectic and Dad 's been feeling a little out of sorts. So they both probably forgot again.