The Pediatrician

 Yesterday we had our appointment with the pediatrician. He is a specialist in brain/mind things so very familiar with ADHD, anxiety, ODD, etc. The appointment was long, over an hour. And oh we have a lot to do now! I hope some part of it will be successful and there will be improvement in the reactions. He explained the "higher brain" and "lower brain" stuff, how Jackson is living in the reactive state and not allowing his higher brain to take over. And so that is what we need to work on. He gave recommendations for massage therapy, physiotherapy, a slew of supplements, 1 hours of activity a day, 10-15 minutes of meditation/yoga per day and only 2 hours of screen time (outside of educational and family time). As well, he gave us a prescription for medication, which I will get filled tomorrow with the hope we can start it on Sunday. And hope it works. Oh, bloodwork to get done as well, and recommendation to have Jackson's eye's checked. So. 

We have an eye appointment for Tuesday after work. We have an intake sessions with the physiotherapist for March. I spoke with a psychologist today and we will be setting up the intake appointment with me and then treatment plans for the future, hoping to start end of February or beginning of March. That's virtual. I will take him for the bloodwork next Friday since I have the day off, we can line up virtually I believe so hopefully that works well. I'm not sure. I believe I have to pay for one of the tests, hopefully it's covered by my work plan. Like all the other stuff... I still have to make an appointment for massage therapy as well, but it's all out of pocket and reimbursed stuff so I am waiting a bit since money is tight, again. 

Kiddo broke his phone last night so I had to get him a new one. I am honestly surprised it lasted as long as it did, but he really broke it, snapped the screen right off it. New one is not as big, or as powerful, but oh well! Hopefully it lasts a year. There are 10 months left before the old one is even paid off so we can't change plans, but I was able to put the sim card in the new one and it works fine. I will probably upgrade mine when we are able to and save my current one for him to use when his breaks, we'll see. I can then get some kind of pay as you go type plan, or bring your own device style. Cheaper I think. He likes to watch videos while he's going to bed. Which of course we need to work on. 

For the decreases in screen time we are starting with a baseline, how much time is he on it now. Then well set a plan to decrease it. I can't see him going "cold turkey". We have tried that before and oh it does not go well. The doctor talked about how the screens act on the same part of the brain that causes addiction, brains behave the same way with screens as they do with various drugs. Lovely. I think that will help with the outbursts as most of them are related to things that have happened in a game.

Some are due to the disconnect between what someone says or means and how Jackson's brain perceives it. He doesn't always think things through or understand that what he thinks as a first reaction isn't really what anyone has said. I hope the therapist will be able to help with that. And with increasing his mood, helping him see the good in things and the growth mindset that will benefit him later. 

Now we start to worry about what to do about school in the fall. When he is rested and in a good mood he is ok with a change. When he is tired or hungry he only says he wants to go where his friends do. Though I don't agree. I will hopefully be able to talk to him about this as we go through the various treatments and see improvement. While I think we will be staying here for another year, to save money, who knows and perhaps we will want to move. You never know what will happen.

Now if only this lockdown, pandemic, crappy stuck at home stuff would end. While I love working from home, and don't want to do much in winter any way, kiddo needs to be more active than we are. It would be nice to be able to do things. Hopefully lockdown is ending in another week or two, and by then it will be almost spring. It is even hard to walk the dog because sidewalks are so narrow, I don't want to pass that closely to others. 

My birthday is coming up on the weekend, 46. Yeah. I'm old! Well not really I guess but it feels like I am. Like I am done with so many things. I still have a few years to go before I can retire though. I do wish that was sooner. I am rethinking my wish to be a snowbird though. With this pandemic a lot of them have been stuck, either able to travel or not. So we'll see. In the meantime, we are probably getting a kitten in the next few months. Yeah. Don't need another cat of course, but we love them and I think our youngest one would like a playmate, she torments one of our other cats and I hope a kitten would help. We'll see.