Well, I've suspected it for several years, but now it's official. Lilly has ADHD really bad, and must begin taking medication for it. Her pediatrician is really good, and very cautious, and is not the type of doctor to just go throwing pills around for every little affliction. So this is not something that has been taken lightly. Lilly has been prescribed the ADHD medication "Concerta". I'll pick the medication up from the pharmacy later today, and tomorrow morning, Lilly will begin taking it.
Both Lilly's teacher and I will have to fill out what's called "Vanderbilt" forms, which are basically in-depth questionnaires regarding Lilly's behavior. We will have to do one set of forms now, and another set of "follow-up" forms in a couple of weeks.
Then, two weeks from now, we will have to go back to Lilly's doctor for a checkup, and take all those completed forms back to the doctor. Lilly's medication dosage may need to be adjusted at that time. Lilly's doctor is starting her out with the lowest dosage just to see how it works, and then "up" it from there if needed.
I will have to take Lilly back to the doctor every 3 months for a checkup. And every month, I will have to call the doctor for a new prescription for Lilly's medication, because since it's a controlled substance, they will only allow you to have one month's worth of medication at a time.
Lilly's doctor also wants for us to take her to a counselor as soon as we can, and gave us the name of one to use.
ADHD is actually a lifelong illness, like diabetes is. It's not something that kids grow out of. It's NOT caused by eating too much sugar, additives in food, allergies, or immunizations. So for Lilly to have the best success in life, she will need to continue to take ADHD medication, even after she reaches adulthood, because ADHD never goes away.
Lilly's doctor thinks that she also might be suffering from some depression and insomnia. So the doctor also suggested that I try giving Lilly half of a 3-milligram tablet of Melatonin with a little snack a little while before bed each night.
So we shall see.
I'm kind of glad, in a way, that now Lilly has officially been diagnosed, and that we seem to be on the right track of getting her the proper medication and care that she needs. For so long, I just assumed that me and Jamie simply had shitty parenting skills, and/or that Lilly was just being a kid, and/or Lilly was just a "difficult" child. But now I know for sure that that's not the case. And that there is nothing at all that can "make" her better, except for the medication that she desperately needs.
Hopefully once we finally get Lilly's ADHD under control, our lives will improve, because it's been nothing but a constant nightmare pretty much ever since Lilly's been born. I always just thought "well, she's just in the Terrible Twos", or "now she's in the Terrible Threes", or "well, she just started pre-k, so that's just stressful", and so on and so forth. We have suffered terribly through Lilly's severe behavior issues for many years. Her doctor actually basically "applauded" us for putting up with it as long as we have, without rushing out for medication sooner. I explained to her that we just didn't know any better; that we didn't know for sure exactly how kids were supposed to act, and just assumed that she was probably "just being a kid", and we were just the ones that couldn't handle it.
And Lilly's doctor got to see first-hand for herself many examples of Lilly's bad behavior while we were in the examination room. Lilly was basically crawling up the walls and going ape-shit crazy the entire time we were there. But it's not "bad behavior"...it's ADHD. It can't be helped, no matter what you try, without medication.
So hopefully this will be the turning point for us, and things might finally start looking up.
Now if we can just find Jamie a job...
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