No time to write much, but want to give the quick summary
One part of treatment is 1 mg melatonin, 4 or 5 hours before he falls asleep
Second part is light therapy
full spectrum light lamp / box
fullspectrumsolutions
10,000 lux light unit
30 minutes , 1 to 2 feet, in the morning, right when he gets up
if that doesn't work, put next to his bed. eyes closed diminishes effect, so
better with eyes open
one study for B12 , but we are holding off on that for now
Try it all for 2 weeks, then give him a call
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Very Good Meeting at School
We had a progress meeting for Zack's IEP. Everyone was very very positive about him. He really is doing amazingly well. His government teacher came in and I am very impressed with him. He seems exactly the kind of person Zack needs, has a very clear overview on paper which shows what every student should learn in a given 2 weeks period. Fits very well with Zack's Aspergers, very structured, but also very individualized.
Zack didn't start goverment till 8 weeks into the semester, but had insisted on doing the first three tests he missed anyway. He easily got 100 % on those. Which was cool to hear, and confirms that Zack isn't low functioning at all at academic level. I have to admit that I am enjoying how well he is doing academically , and proving that maybe homeschooled kids DO know something after all. It's good education for the school too.
We are going to add lunch, and we'll add another class in January. He will take the bus at 10:20am, starting tomorrow.
So things are going very well. I am still amazed about how much of a turn around he has made with support of the school.
Zack didn't start goverment till 8 weeks into the semester, but had insisted on doing the first three tests he missed anyway. He easily got 100 % on those. Which was cool to hear, and confirms that Zack isn't low functioning at all at academic level. I have to admit that I am enjoying how well he is doing academically , and proving that maybe homeschooled kids DO know something after all. It's good education for the school too.
We are going to add lunch, and we'll add another class in January. He will take the bus at 10:20am, starting tomorrow.
So things are going very well. I am still amazed about how much of a turn around he has made with support of the school.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Doctor Sloth
Today, we saw Dr Sloth, the sleep doctor. I liked him, he seemed a nice guy. It did take me a while to tell him the whole medical sleeping related history, and he was impressed with how many medications we had tried over the course of the last six months.
He agreed that it looks like his circadian rhytm is off, longer than 'average'. And we are doing most of the right things already. He thinks it would be a good idea to wake him up on the normal time during the weekends, but he acknowledges how hard that can be and that it also might be important to let him catch up on sleep.
He is pondering combination of light therapy, some melatonin, and maybe stimulants, and an occasional sleeping medication to manage this. He wants to research more, and will call me back next week. He gave us a sleep log, to keep track of exactly when and how many hours he sleeps.
Dr Sloth was impressed that the school agreed to a later starting time for Zack. He says that everyone always tells him that that is impossible.
Timing was perfect, he ended up getting to school at just the right time. I think it was a good visit, will be interesting to see what he comes up with.
He agreed that it looks like his circadian rhytm is off, longer than 'average'. And we are doing most of the right things already. He thinks it would be a good idea to wake him up on the normal time during the weekends, but he acknowledges how hard that can be and that it also might be important to let him catch up on sleep.
He is pondering combination of light therapy, some melatonin, and maybe stimulants, and an occasional sleeping medication to manage this. He wants to research more, and will call me back next week. He gave us a sleep log, to keep track of exactly when and how many hours he sleeps.
Dr Sloth was impressed that the school agreed to a later starting time for Zack. He says that everyone always tells him that that is impossible.
Timing was perfect, he ended up getting to school at just the right time. I think it was a good visit, will be interesting to see what he comes up with.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Well..
After the good update from yesterday, now posting a not so good update.
Tonight Zack totally exploded again. He is mostly ok now, but things were bad and I was very close to taking him into the ER. I just so desperately did not want to end up in hospitals again, so I talked him out of it.
It all started when Victor peed his bed. That happens almost never, but somehow it happened tonight. Victor didn't even totally wake up, got out of bed, changed his clothes, put some towels down, and fell back asleep. Never fully awake. When he changed his clothes, he dumped them on the floor, and crawled back in his bed. Zack got upset by the wet clothes on the floor (which is not surprising). But instead of dealing with it in a reasonable way, he tried to wake up Victor, and when he couldn't, he picked up the clothes and threw them into the girls room. They naturally threw them back, so Zack actually came downstairs and put them in the laundry basket.
So far so good. Well, mostly so. Zack was so annoyed that he had had to take care of the wet clothes, that he now started trying to wake up Victor by doing very obnoxious things. I don't know what all happened exactly, but he made many noises, turned on all the lights, turned on the alarm, turned on the radio. I am not sure what he was trying to accomplish, I think he said something about Victor having to apologize to him, because he took care of Victor's wet clothes.
He kept pushing Victor, till Victor finally woke up enough and was very annoyed right back at him. The story is that Victor tried to choke Zack. So Victor snapped under Zack's prodding. Zack immediately started screaming that Victor tried to kill him, ran downstairs and things were very loud from then on. Zack was going to kill Victor. He was going to kill himself so that Victor couldn't kill him. He wanted to go to the hospital. Right now! He wanted to sleep in the xxx room, then changed his mind 40 times about the sleeping place. He started screaming again. Got the phone and said he would call the police because there was a murderer in the house. Meanwhile. Victor was crying about all that happened and Sarah was still bouncing around because she couldn't fall asleep with all this stuff going on. I was so close to driving to the ER. But I did soooooooo not want to start the whole hospital crap again now that things just are going so well. I reminded Zack of how well things were going, but he was beyond caring. Zack also was spitting everywhere again and screamed 'I can't swallow!'
Eventually things calmed down and are calm now, but this was pretty bad. I haven't seen him this bad in months. Victor seriously was afraid of getting hurt by Zack. Victor is now sleeping on the floor of this room because he was too scared to sleep with Zack in a room. Zack is calm, but refuses to sleep, because he is sure he will have another night terror.
Bad, bad, bad. Things were going so well. I hope this was just a one time thing. But it sure was scary. Not good at all.
Maybe it's the Halloween stress and candy. Maybe it's something else. I don't know. But this was no fun.
Tonight Zack totally exploded again. He is mostly ok now, but things were bad and I was very close to taking him into the ER. I just so desperately did not want to end up in hospitals again, so I talked him out of it.
It all started when Victor peed his bed. That happens almost never, but somehow it happened tonight. Victor didn't even totally wake up, got out of bed, changed his clothes, put some towels down, and fell back asleep. Never fully awake. When he changed his clothes, he dumped them on the floor, and crawled back in his bed. Zack got upset by the wet clothes on the floor (which is not surprising). But instead of dealing with it in a reasonable way, he tried to wake up Victor, and when he couldn't, he picked up the clothes and threw them into the girls room. They naturally threw them back, so Zack actually came downstairs and put them in the laundry basket.
So far so good. Well, mostly so. Zack was so annoyed that he had had to take care of the wet clothes, that he now started trying to wake up Victor by doing very obnoxious things. I don't know what all happened exactly, but he made many noises, turned on all the lights, turned on the alarm, turned on the radio. I am not sure what he was trying to accomplish, I think he said something about Victor having to apologize to him, because he took care of Victor's wet clothes.
He kept pushing Victor, till Victor finally woke up enough and was very annoyed right back at him. The story is that Victor tried to choke Zack. So Victor snapped under Zack's prodding. Zack immediately started screaming that Victor tried to kill him, ran downstairs and things were very loud from then on. Zack was going to kill Victor. He was going to kill himself so that Victor couldn't kill him. He wanted to go to the hospital. Right now! He wanted to sleep in the xxx room, then changed his mind 40 times about the sleeping place. He started screaming again. Got the phone and said he would call the police because there was a murderer in the house. Meanwhile. Victor was crying about all that happened and Sarah was still bouncing around because she couldn't fall asleep with all this stuff going on. I was so close to driving to the ER. But I did soooooooo not want to start the whole hospital crap again now that things just are going so well. I reminded Zack of how well things were going, but he was beyond caring. Zack also was spitting everywhere again and screamed 'I can't swallow!'
Eventually things calmed down and are calm now, but this was pretty bad. I haven't seen him this bad in months. Victor seriously was afraid of getting hurt by Zack. Victor is now sleeping on the floor of this room because he was too scared to sleep with Zack in a room. Zack is calm, but refuses to sleep, because he is sure he will have another night terror.
Bad, bad, bad. Things were going so well. I hope this was just a one time thing. But it sure was scary. Not good at all.
Maybe it's the Halloween stress and candy. Maybe it's something else. I don't know. But this was no fun.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Good Update
School is going ok, he hasn't missed any in the last week.
Sleeping is working WITHOUT meds, he has refused to take the Lunesta. I think the hallucinations on Ambien really scared him, and he is not willing to try the Lunesta.
Today we saw his doctor. She gave him referral to a new local sleep doctor who is supposed to be very good.
He is going to add another hour to his school day from Mon on. Gopher sent me this email
" I talked to Zack about starting Period 4-Language Class on Monday, November 5th. This date is the 1st day of the new, 2nd quarter of the school year, so it's a good date to start the class. He has already visited the class. If he has Language II period #4, then his Per. #7 with Mr. Shakespeare would be a Resource Room Class for which he would receive credit.
Zack feels he's ready-what do you think????"
He will have Mr Shakespeare as his one-on-one aide in class. It is a smaller class , but mainstream. They will talk to the class beforehand and prepare them without mentioning the specific disability.
Zack got two shots today. He let the nurse desinfect the chair before he was willing to get them. And he complained about the fact that she wasn't wearing gloves.
He is also going to start speech therapy , but we are still trying to figure out scheduling for that one.
Sleeping is working WITHOUT meds, he has refused to take the Lunesta. I think the hallucinations on Ambien really scared him, and he is not willing to try the Lunesta.
Today we saw his doctor. She gave him referral to a new local sleep doctor who is supposed to be very good.
He is going to add another hour to his school day from Mon on. Gopher sent me this email
" I talked to Zack about starting Period 4-Language Class on Monday, November 5th. This date is the 1st day of the new, 2nd quarter of the school year, so it's a good date to start the class. He has already visited the class. If he has Language II period #4, then his Per. #7 with Mr. Shakespeare would be a Resource Room Class for which he would receive credit.
Zack feels he's ready-what do you think????"
He will have Mr Shakespeare as his one-on-one aide in class. It is a smaller class , but mainstream. They will talk to the class beforehand and prepare them without mentioning the specific disability.
Zack got two shots today. He let the nurse desinfect the chair before he was willing to get them. And he complained about the fact that she wasn't wearing gloves.
He is also going to start speech therapy , but we are still trying to figure out scheduling for that one.
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