Today worked out pretty well, at least better than expected. Gavin goes to my parents every Wednesday and spends a few hours hanging out. This gives Lizze and I a reprieve from all the talking. Something had come up for today and he wasn’t going to be able to go but last night, my Mom sent a text that we were still on.

I knew Gavin would be excited because all week, he’s been talking about how Grandma has to go out of town and he won’t be able to go on Wednesday.

My Mom picked Gavin up and Lizze and I took the boys to their doctors appointment. Not having to drag Gavin along, made it much easier and worked out well considering how challenging the boys ended up being.

Today’s appointment was simply a meds check for ADHD. We leave them unmedicated for these appointments because the doctor wants to see how their doing without their meds.

Let me just say that these guys were all over the place. It was very clear to everyone that meds are still necessary. We got the refills for their ADHD meds and then talked about Elliott’s anxiety. We decided that we were going to try putting Elliott on Prozac because it can help with anxiety. He was on this before but that was during the separation and there was too much going on for anything to really work.

We’re starting at a low dose and she wants him monitored closely. He goes back in two weeks and during that time, we have to try and find him a new psychiatrist. You may recall that both Elliott and Emmett were released from Dr. Reynolds because they weren’t serious enough cases and he was shipping patients like these guys to their pediatricians due to staffing problems.

In our area, it’s impossible to find a decent child psychiatrist and the wait lists are four to six olmonths in some cases.

Either way, Elliott’s been referred to Akron Children’s Hospital and while there will be a wait, he should be able to get in.

When putting a kid on any psychological medication, pediatricians are usually uncomfortable managing and significant. She’s going to manage the Prozac until we get a new psychiatrist for him. We have to watch him closely for negative side effects, especially suicidal ideations.

We’re hoping that this will improve Elliott’s quality of life and help him be more comfortable in his own skin.

As always, we aren’t advocates of medicating kids all willy-nilly. It has to be about their quality of life and not about making ours easier. Our lives might improve as a result but that’s a side effect of Elliott’s life improving.