Medical Probs

In October, we had Parent Teacher Conferences. James enjoys school and I was eager to hear how he was doing. We made conferences a family event and all of us attended. It wasn’t the conference I  envisioned or hoped for. Although yes, James scored high on kindergarten testing which wasn’t a surprise, some issues came up. The conference ran long. James' speech was mentioned,  also his poor handwriting (and possibly the need for occupational therapy), and his trouble focusing. Lots of James’ work that the teacher showed us was unfinished. Apparently getting James to sit still and work in class was a challenge. I knew that James had his name written on the “uh-oh board” one day since he told me, but I didn’t realize he was struggling and felt a little blindsided. We decided to head to the pediatrician and discuss the possibility of James having ADD. This is something I’ve always wondered about. After consulting the doc, Andrew and I had to fill out assessments about James’ behavior and his teacher filled one out too. It was determined that James does have ADD/ADHD. 

We started James on medication. Our pediatrician’s son also takes this medication and his firsthand experience was very beneficial. James takes the lowest dose possible. Luckily James does not have to swallow a pill. We put a powder in his breakfast in the mornings. The drug can affect sleep and appetite, but fortunately, James’ body has adjusted well. (He only lost 1 pound after a month on the medication and losing 4-5 pounds is expected.) After hearing about the challenges at school and learning that ADD can affect James’ self-esteem and cause more irritability and anger, I was fully on board with preventing that. Andrew agreed especially since James couldn’t really write. One night, it took 25 minutes to get James just to write his name on his homework. We have seen giant improvements with James and so has his teacher. I am proud of him! I recently got a phone call from the speech pathologist at the school. She is going to assess James’ speech and work with him. James’ teacher no longer thinks James needs to be evaluated for occupational therapy though which is a huge win. Now that he can focus, he can write. Maybe James will get to do the Chinese Immersion program at school next year like he’s been hoping for after all.

My health challenges have been plentiful this year, but the most recent problem has been super aggravating hives. These started in October around the time of James’ diagnosis. The hives were all over my entire body and even went up my neck onto my face at times. Falling asleep was tricky because I was so itchy. The hives were bad enough to wake me up during the night. I went to a primary care doctor and he thought the hives might be caused by stress. He put me on a prescription, but the hives returned ruling out stress. I scheduled an appointment with an allergy specialist (who happens to be in our ward and live on our street). He was booked out pretty far, but I could finally see him this week. I’m relieved. I didn’t end up having to do an allergy test. I guess my skin is so sensitive it would have been hard to read the test results. I'm not allergic to my toothpaste like detective Jenna thought. I learned the term for my sensitive skin is dermatographia. I can take over-the-counter pills to help ease the hives and you better believe I got those pills into my system as soon as possible. Just because I have this skin condition now, doesn’t mean I’ll deal with it forever. The doctor did ask if I’ve had Covid-19 recently and said that hives are a common lingering side effect. There’s no way to know exactly what is causing the hives, but I am thrilled to have a plan moving forward. Stay away hives! Forever.