ADHD Assessment

I collected Little Prince from school at the start of afternoon break, as that was a natural "break" in his day. I thought we had plenty of time to get to the hospital and get parked in time for our appointment - I was wrong! We got to the hospital in time, but then had to queue to enter the car park for ages, with Little Prince panicking in the back asking every few moments were we late! He was quite wound up by the time we did get let into the car park!

We also ended up on the opposite side of the hospital to where we needed to be, and Little Prince wanted to run the whole way!! Then when we got to the Children's Outpatients the receptionist was busy dealing with another patient and didn't buzz us in - cue more panic! By the time we finally got in and sat down, Little Prince was as high as a kite!! Playing with and then abandoning toys within moments. We played a couple of games of table football, I won the first game, which Little Prince didn't take too badly, and just demanded an immediate rematch. When it looked like he was going to lose the second game too, he had a tantrum, shouting about Mummy cheating and it wasn't fair and he hated this game! Luckily the nurse then called him in to be weighed, measured and have his blood pressure taken. He got quite worried about having his blood pressure taken, asking repeatedly if he was having an injection or if the cuff was going to squeeze his blood out! Once the Nurse finally got the cuff on and set the automatic blood pressure machine started he said he liked it and it felt nice and warm. We then had to go and wait again, this time it seemed we waited for ages and Little Prince was getting more and more wriggly and silly!

We were finally called in to see the Consultant Paediatrician, who was fantastically patient with Little Prince :-) He asked many many questions about Little Prince's background, early childhood and behaviours then and now. He also had Little Prince do some co-ordination exercises, which he teased him saying he was checking if he was drunk. Little Prince went off into a lengthy story about how he drinks beer all the time at "his base" (his imaginary world!). I was so embarassed and assured the Doctor that Little Prince wasn't allowed to drink fizzy drinks let alone alcohol!! He seemed very used to dealing with children like Little Prince, so hopefully he believed me!! While me and the Doctor were talking, Little Prince kept interrupting, messing with the privacy screen, taking his shoes on and off, getting all the toys out and generally messing about - in short he was typical Little Prince!! At one point when he read one of the posters in the room that had the word "inject" he hid under the chair and made the Doctor promise he wouldn't do any injections before he would even consider coming out!! After all of this the Doctor said he felt we should consider stimulant medication, which is what I thought he would say. But to think about this in the abstract is so different from it being "there" right in front of you. Even though I know that the medication is what Little Prince needs, it was so hard to actually get the word "yes" out. But I did. The Doctor talked about the possible side effects and the fact that this is a controlled medication and must be kept safe and secure at home. He prescribed Little Prince 30 days worth of a pretty low dose, and made another appointment to see him again at the end of next month to see how he is getting on. The Doctor also said that it was alright to give Little Prince the medication over weekends and school holidays, which was such a relief as I NEED a break!

We then had to go over to the hospital pharmacy to get the prescription filled. The Doctor had also warned that our GP might not be prepared to prescribe this medication, and if that's the case we will have to go to the hospital pharmacy every time we need a repeat prescription. He also said that I might have to show identification to be able to collect the medication, again because its a controlled substance. All this really hammered home the seriousness of the decision I've just taken. In the end the pharmacy didn't require ID and there was no problem with them prescribing it.

On the way home Little Prince was adamant that he DID NOT want to take the medicine and that he liked being crazy. I tried to explain that he would still have plenty of energy, but that the medicine would help him "pause and think" before he did something, so that he would stop getting in trouble for doing silly things at school and home. He isn't convinced, hopefully he will co-operate in the morning and take the tablet!! We called in at the supermarket to get some groceries, and I let Little Prince choose himself a treat. He chose what he thought was bubble gum, but that turned out to be bubble gum flavoured candy floss! Then we went over to MacDonalds for something to eat, which Little Prince was very impressed with as he'd been there yesterday on the way home from the cinema with Daddy. He isn't normally allowed to go so often!!

Once we got home I showed Little Prince what his tablets looked like, as he'd started to obsess that it was an injection, despite repeated denials of this from me! He wasn't that reassured when he saw the capsules! I think its going to be a battle to get him to take it tomorrow morning!

Mr Messy hadn't realised that Little Prince had already eaten and made him and Princess Lollipop some tea, which Little Prince eagerly ate. Then it was time for him to get ready for bed, and I gave him the book that the ADHD Nurse had given me for him, it explains ADHD from a child's point of view. He wasn't too keen on reading it, complaining that he wanted his Harry Potter instead, but once he'd started reading and seen that the little boy in the book and himself had a lot of behaviours and feelings in common he was keen to read it. I left him tucked up in bed reading and said that he could finish the book (it was short and not very complicated) and then had to settle down to sleep. About 20 minutes later Little Prince came down saying he'd finished reading it and that he'd thrown up in the toilet! He made me look at the toilet to "prove" he actually had thrown up, which he had! He doesn't seem ill in the slightest, and has no temperature so I think its just a combination of overeating and worrying about this appointment that has caused this! Fingers crossed its nothing more serious. I explained what I thought to Little Prince and he was fairly satisfied with this explanation and settled back down to sleep pretty easily.

Back downstairs Mr Messy was watching football, so me and Princess Lollipop played Lego for a while before I got her into her pyjamas and took her up to bed. She actually asked for her pyjamas so I think she was ready for bed!!