52 Week Blessing Challenge – Week 3 Medications

Among the many ways I feel blessed I have to say that having the correct medication for our daughter Grace is a huge blessing.

Grace was a 27 week preemie. She had a typical (aside from the blindness) infancy and toddlerhood.

When she was about 2 1/2 years old she suddenly began to have tantrums. We just thought she was having her terrible two’s. But by age 3 and then 4 the tantrums only got worse.

Along with the outbursts she was very impulsive and we could not keep her from tearing things up. Anything within reach was tossed or slapped to the floor as she walked by. Wall paper was torn up and holes picked in the walls. Things were cut-up, colored on, glued, sprayed on and chewed up. Nothing was immune, not my bedroom, not the kitchen, nothing.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. We were supposed to have this nice little girl who wanted to be just like mom. But the child who survived her very early birth, survived blindness now had THIS hyperactive impulsive behavior. It took all of the adults in our home to watch Grace at every waking moment, to keep her from destroying everything we own. We were getting tired, irritable, and resigned to have nothing nice or new in our home. What were we going to do?

By the time Grace started school she was old enough to be evaluated. Our doctor called it Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, something many children are affected by. Grace was prescribed a common medication and we waited for a miracle.

Little by little we could see a change, but it was not enough. So the medication was increased and then changed again. And then we found something that seemed to work. For one whole year it worked…. before the bottom dropped out.

We were back to square one just as we were beginning some semblance of normal life. So we tried again, changing medications and amounts. And we started another school year on a new regime. As I think back on those years not so long ago I remember the relief that the medication brought. Grace could now go to the grocery store without having an incident. We could go out to eat, or even visit friends without fear that their pretty bathroom would be torn up after she used it.

And again a year later we began to have problems with the medication not working. But this time I found that it wasn’t being consumed. I would find a pill on the floor, in a cup, under something on the counter. This only happens with the morning medicine, when her medication level is at its lowest. So now I have to watch to see that the medicine is actually swallowed.

Today Grace is finishing second grade, reading at a high fourth grade level, and is a very smart and a beautifully talented artist. She is still all of these things without medication, however, the Attention Deficit Hyperactive and Impulsive Disorder magnifies and she can’t cope or be herself.

So are we blessed? Oh you bet! We are so blessed to have our daughter, and to have the medication that helps her be the truly terrific person that she is. And while I know that the medication might not work next year, there is hope because it has worked, and does work, and our house is getting back to normal, again.