The Difference

We took Marshall to see a WONDERFUL doctor who specializes in attention disorders like ADHD. This man used to be a Pediatrician who was well known in this area. A few years ago, he sold his practice and instead of retiring, opened the Attention Clinic. As many of you know, Brian and I have exhausted just about EVERY resource available to us.
We finally decided it was time to try medication. We were barely hanging on and were so wiped out all the time. Nobody can ever understand truly what it was like living with Marshall unless they did it. He rarely slept through the night, refused nearly all meals, and was angry almost all the time!!! This face is what we got almost all day long.
It's still a cute angry face but it's SO hard to have a very angry child ALL the time. He would hit me and Nate, throw things at us when he got mad, and when you put him in time out, he'd kick the door and throw things at it. He broke a few things, but amazingly the door has stayed intact so far. He was ALWAYS on the go. You could just forget playing games like Candy Land with this 3 1/2 yr old. Church was HORRENDOUS and so many days we ended up in the foyer before church even began!! Well, we switched his sleeping medication and put him on another one that is commonly used in ADHD and Autistic kids and we are SO PLEASED with the results. We have only had to use the very minimum dose on both medications and they are working beautifully!! Now, instead of being angry all day, he is happy. He can entertain himself for a few minutes while I do things around the house, he tells me he loves me so many times a day. I love it! He sleeps about 10-12 hrs a night and he even took a nap yesterday!! He's playing Candy Land and even asking to play it 2 and 3 times. It's like a completely different child. Not in the way that many people think when you tell them you're medicating your child. Most people are under the impression that if you medicate your child, they will basically turn into zombies. Not the case here. Marshall is a normal, happy child. He's more eager to learn and help me out around the house. He has more patience and, although he gets angry sometimes, as normal children do, he controls it SO much better and gets over it quicker. I really feel like my prayers have been answered. Brian and I have been praying for 3 yrs that we would be able to find what would help Marshall. The Lord is testing us to see how patient we can be but also showing us how much we can learn and how much stress we can really take. I'm grateful for challenges that help me grow. Here are pictures of the wonderful differences we've seen after nearly a week on these medications.