One day I will properly be able to spell clonidine on the first try. Anyway…
Clonidine wound up not working that well for Bub. Sometimes it was a hit, other times it was a miss, and it tended to be more misses than hits as far as consistently helping him achieve restful sleep went. So he was switched over to Mirtazapine (another medication that I am continuing to learn how to spell), which has actually worked really well helping him restfully sleep almost all of the nights that he takes it. The only problem with that is that his meltdowns have worsened over the last few months, and Bub is beginning to hit, kick, and pinch during these, which in turn is wounding the people that he does it to… and he’s even begun to have these meltdowns during therapy sessions with his therapists, which is particularly problematic since I would not mind as much if it were just me that his frustrations were focused on (“bad cop”). I put in a call to his developmental pediatrician asking if he could be put on something during the day to help him better cope with overwhelming moods, and I’ve been corresponding with them over the last few days to fine-tune what I hope is a helpful change to his medication regimen. We may try trazodone out.
Trazodone is not normally given to children, but it can be in some cases when benefits outweigh risks.
Luckily Bub was just seen by his developmental pediatrician though, so we’ve been able to start to sort this out over the phone rather than commute and bring him in for yet another visit… during a global pandemic.
Meanwhile, I am continuing to homeschool both of the boys in spite of our state funding virtual schooling again. Only 10% of the district’s students can be enrolled in it, which means that there is never a guarantee that either of them would be selected, and there is no prioritizing for disability. The school also has to have or exceed a certain grade to be permitted to homeschool… or maybe that’s the district in general, which makes things even more of a toss-up if I were to consider it. And then there’s the fact that both of the boys would have to go to their respective schools to take the state test, and we know for a fact that Bub is not testable. So they would literally have to go up on campus where the schools and the districts can not mandate masks by executive order from the governor, which means that there is a risk of exposure to COVID-19, and then they could bring it home to each other or give it to me. At any rate, though, even with accommodations (assuming that the school actually gave them), if they did not get or exceed a certain grade on the test, they would not be permitted to continue virtual schooling. I know for a fact that Monster has a confirmed intellectual disability because he is more testable in that regard. If he does, Bub has to. Homeschooling for the long-term just makes more sense in our situation, and it is working well for us. I swear I have ADD or ADHD, though…