My Day

Hmmm. I seem to be the only one reading my blog. Oh well. That's ok. Don't mind me. I'm just talking to myself here.....

T's teachers have made an emphatic note of her concentration problems and the subject of Ritalin has once again come up. It was recommended at the end of 2nd grade but I decided against giving it to her. Now I wonder if I should have and if her whole school experience would have been better had she taken it. But live and learn. The good thing is that now SHE is interested in trying it AND she's big now and old enough to be aware of how she feels/reacts to it and give me feedback.

The neurologist we had an appointment with about 2 weeks ago wanted her to do this TOVA test for ADD diagnosis. I'd never heard of it but - whatever. I called the kupah numerous times to find out where we are supposed to do this test and after many many calls I finally lit on someone who had heard of it and was told, "Yeah. You need an appointment with Dr. Elyev." Fine. Made the appointment for this morning at 9:30. We walked in to his office and he asked how he could help us. I said "We're here to do the TOVA test." He said, "I don't do that test. You have to come to me with the results AFTER having it done." AAARRRRRGGHH. He said you have to pay for it privately and it's done at various institutes. He asked what I would like to do now. I said, "I would like to stop wasting my time and my daughter's time and I want a prescription for Ritalin." He pulled out of his cabinet behind his chair a very unsexy, homemade-looking questionairre with maybe 20 questions on it total. The first half were questions about attention and concentration and the 2nd half were about hyperactivity which T is definitely not. T and I sat there and answered the questions together, with the doctor clarifying things here and there. When we finished I showed him the questionairre that T's teacher had filled out previously as well. It was so totally obvious what we're dealing with here. He said he would give us a prescription for Ritalin on the spot and asked what I had waited so long for! He also said that it would be a good idea before she starts taking it to do an ECG which we did there as well. Then we ran across the street to the pharmacy and got the Ritalin and then had to run to our family doctor for her to see the results of the ECG. She said everything is fine. So it's a green light for Ritalin! I'm nervous as to how she'll react to it - side effects and such - but hopeful too.