Big Decisions!

On picking the children up from school on Thursday, Boy Wonder came out of the classroom with a shredded T-shirt which was also very chewed. However his teacher and Boy Wonder said that there had been no real problems and it had been a fairly settled day. As we walked outside, he started to hold his tummy and double over, seemingly in pain. Tummy ache is always a difficult call with Boy Wonder as he gets it when anxious but will also use its presence to not go to clubs which often provide a welcome distraction to the anxiety. However, if this is the case, Boy Wonder generally stops mentioning the tummy ache fairly quickly as he has told me once so he doesn't need to tell me again.

We drove to the clubs but Boy Wonder still appeared to be in some pain as intermittently he would hold his stomach and crouch like he was having spasms. This was unusual for him and is only really seen during periods of acute anxiety. Boy Wonder is rarely ill in general terms. We dropped Cat Girl off at Ju Jitsu and I made Boy Wonder an appointment with the GP as 40 minutes on he was still seemingly in quite a bit if discomfort. He didn't protest about going to the Doctors or missing football which convinced me that I had made the right decision.

The appointment ran 40 minutes late which only increased Boy Wonder's anxiety but once in the appointment he was checked over and weighed. The GP said that she was happy that there were no physical indicators to suggest something such as appendicitis but with the symptoms and the state of hisT-shirt, anxiety was the likely cause. She asked for a urine sample to send off and we spoke about his weight ( he has lost another 1kg, making it 2kg lost in a month,) went through his medication and identified the ADHD medication as the only one with appetite suppressant side affects that was likely to be contributing to the weight loss. She also re referred to the dietician for supplement support although was aware that we have been giving Boy Wonder build up shakes daily and this wasn't sufficient to support weight gain. The GP said that she would write to the Consultant and request a medication review and asked me up ring the hospital to request this also.

Boy Wonder rested for the remainder of the evening and the tummy ache subsided eventually.

Yesterday was the day of the meeting with the LocalAuthority and school to agree the Statement of SEN. Before this I rang Boy Wonder's consultant and explained about yesterday and the weight loss. We agreed an immediate medication break from the ADHD medication to allow for recovery and a review in four weeks.  She expressed her concern that his health needs outweighing the positives of the treatment so needed to be managed. Superman and I had, had this same conversation last night and drawn the same conclusion.

During the meeting we discussed the areas that Superman and I had raised as inaccuracies in the statement and were relieved to find that all of the points were recognised and added. The teacher contributed by illustrating a typical day and the difficulties they faced. The new Head appeared very proactive and decisive about things and as a result the statement was agreed in principle ( the actual support hours to be agreed at panel, but I was assured that they wouldn't be reduced!) and we then spoke about the medication change. The Head responded by saying ' forewarned is forearmed and therefore we will discuss a management plan to put into place for Monday as required.' The LA stated that the school can call an early review for the statement at any time should they find that the statement is no longer sufficient. In addition the LA confirmed that the OT is experienced in autism and sensory processing disorder and they are happy for her to liaise with our OT for consistency. A speech and language therapy referral was also agreed along with the use of earphones in class to block out some noise and the use of his ( not so healthy ) high calorie snacks at break time. We ended the meeting and for the first time in four years we felt that we actually had Boy Wonder's needs agreed. We are just hoping now that the statement hours allow for the work needed.

So we are now entering a month of raw ADHD. We have spoke to Boy Wonder about it and he seems  very happy that he will have more energy! I don't think he quite grasped the point but hey ho. Hold on to your hats!