I posted a few weeks about about my difficult child (5, HF autism with anxiety/Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)/ADHD) who is having open heart surgery in 3 weeks (we do have a date now, July 7). His behavior has been escalating for a few months now (he's in his bad cycle) and I finally got his pediatrician to consider medications. He's never been on anything before and they were really reluctant to give him anything because of his heart condition.
So he started seroquel (12.5mg at bedtime) earlier this week. While he is going to sleep more easily (it used to take 2-3 hours of mania/thrashing around/flopping/talking/melting down etc., now only 45min-1hr; and yes we have a solid early bedtime routine we've worked out with a therapist), I haven't noticed any change in his behavior during the day. He still has semi-OK days and really bad days. (Today is a REALLY bad day.) I'm kind of shocked he can stay awake that long and still be so hyped up the next day because I've taken seroquel before for sleep (I'm BiPolar (BP) II with long time insomnia) and I took 25mg at bedtime and was a zombie for 18 hours. I don't take it anymore for that reason. He only weighs 41lbs???!!!
His main issues are anxiety about sensory stuff (clothes, food), inflexibility, and his "superstitions" (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)-like rituals and fears, like crumbs of food getting near him, flies, and dogs). He is just high anxiety all the time and has massive meltdowns several times a day. His doctor (who consulted with a child psychiatric) said seroquel would be better than risperdal because he's not really aggressive or combative, not physically at least, and that seroquel was better for anxiety. At first they wanted to try an anti anxiety medication like klonopin but when I reminded him about the insane sleep issues he said seroquel would be better.
How long until we know whether it's working? I'm concerned because we only have a few weeks until this surgery and if he's freaking out this much about his shirt, we're not going to make it through the surgery. I am not sure if this is the right medication. I'm supposed to call the pediatrician on Monday with a report.
(For reference, we do explosive child, we've seen therapists, we do charts & social stories, we're trying desperately to get Occupational Therapist (OT) but there is a huge waiting list, we do sensory diet stuff at home. I'm not sure what else we can do as parents without medications, esp. with this surgery coming up. He's going to be in the hospital hooked up to countless machines and in pain for a week, minimum. My own therapist is going to give me some xanax for the surgery...the doctor joked that they could hook me up to a versed drip LOL. I'm kind of wishing it wasn't a joke.)
So he started seroquel (12.5mg at bedtime) earlier this week. While he is going to sleep more easily (it used to take 2-3 hours of mania/thrashing around/flopping/talking/melting down etc., now only 45min-1hr; and yes we have a solid early bedtime routine we've worked out with a therapist), I haven't noticed any change in his behavior during the day. He still has semi-OK days and really bad days. (Today is a REALLY bad day.) I'm kind of shocked he can stay awake that long and still be so hyped up the next day because I've taken seroquel before for sleep (I'm BiPolar (BP) II with long time insomnia) and I took 25mg at bedtime and was a zombie for 18 hours. I don't take it anymore for that reason. He only weighs 41lbs???!!!
His main issues are anxiety about sensory stuff (clothes, food), inflexibility, and his "superstitions" (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)-like rituals and fears, like crumbs of food getting near him, flies, and dogs). He is just high anxiety all the time and has massive meltdowns several times a day. His doctor (who consulted with a child psychiatric) said seroquel would be better than risperdal because he's not really aggressive or combative, not physically at least, and that seroquel was better for anxiety. At first they wanted to try an anti anxiety medication like klonopin but when I reminded him about the insane sleep issues he said seroquel would be better.
How long until we know whether it's working? I'm concerned because we only have a few weeks until this surgery and if he's freaking out this much about his shirt, we're not going to make it through the surgery. I am not sure if this is the right medication. I'm supposed to call the pediatrician on Monday with a report.
(For reference, we do explosive child, we've seen therapists, we do charts & social stories, we're trying desperately to get Occupational Therapist (OT) but there is a huge waiting list, we do sensory diet stuff at home. I'm not sure what else we can do as parents without medications, esp. with this surgery coming up. He's going to be in the hospital hooked up to countless machines and in pain for a week, minimum. My own therapist is going to give me some xanax for the surgery...the doctor joked that they could hook me up to a versed drip LOL. I'm kind of wishing it wasn't a joke.)