The Metadate didn't work out. John developed a rash soon after taking it every morning. The rash didn't last long, but the doctor told us to discontinue it. It was hard to tell for sure, but the school thought it might be helping him some. This was also the first time in 15 years that the doctor had seen this drug cause a rash. No surprise to us that John would be the rare case. We did see a slight increase in seizures as well, which was another reason to stop it.
We have raised John's Keppra to 3ml/twice a day. I think we still might have to go higher, as he continues to have quite a few daily seizures, and they seem to gradually be getting stronger.
John was sick for a couple of weeks. But now that he is better, we have started him on another ADHD drug. This one is a generic form of Dexedrine. The school says he is able to focus better, but when he came home he seemed pretty out of it and not himself at all. That is unsettling to us and we''ll have to monitor closely. He takes the extended release form, and I'm guessing that the effect is wearing off when he comes home causing a letdown feeling that is a documented side-effect. We'll get a better idea when we can watch him all day on the weekends.
We were able to take advantage of our local ARC "Parent's night out" last week. We dropped John off at 6:30, and picked him up at 8:45. We had no idea how he would handle that, but they said he was a joy to have there and he was well behaved. Hmmm. That was not what we expected, but certainly great news. We'll continue to take advantage of this every month. They also have a "summer camp" with the same caregivers that goes all summer.
