To let him sleep, or not?

[BusynMember]

Well, bummer . There's not a lot you can do if the Depakote and Seroquel is helping him other than realize he'll be sleepier than other kids who don't take medications. Honestly, in my over 50 years I've taken probably over twenty medications before this combo and a lot of them absolutely didn't even allow me to think straight. Like I said, Prozac was the worst. And my son was on a ton of BiPolar (BP) medications and on Risperdal and Zyprexa he slept 24/7. Since they also made him crabby and gave him tics the medications were removed and he went back to his usual hyper self.

Maybe at school he can have a "walking" break if he gets tired there. And "jumping jack" breaks during homework time, which can get really tedious when you're tired. I used to have to do that on some medications. A walking/exercise break can clear your head. Sitting around when you've taken "sleepy" medications (at least for ME) always makes me fall asleep. Sometimes I could fight it if I was up and busy, but I sure didn't feel like getting active on some medications.

I wish you and the little guy good luck!

 

[gcvmom]

Thanks One good thing about the middle school schedule is that he's moving to a new class every 50 minutes. Really helps break up the day. And he starts 45min later than he did in elementary, plus every Monday he starts 30 min even later. We may just have to muddle through and hopefully a routine bed and rise time will help keep him from going on a sleep binge.

 

[TPaul]

We tend to have the exact opposite with our difficult child. It is a struggle to get him to go to bed and stay in bed each and every night. Then in the morning he never wants to get up out of bed and is the last one out the door to catch the bus.

Maybe the extra sleep for you son, is a gift to let you have a little time out from the possibly drama that goes on.

From a medical stand point though, it might be medications or depression causing it, so you do need to find a good medium.

 

[GoingNorth]

Can you talk to his psychiatrist about his taking all his medications at once at night? I have to do that in order to be able to function during the day.

I also cannot tolerate Seroquel XR. The tremor and other side effects are much more severe with the XR than with the regular Seroquel.

However, I am VERY sensitive to APs in general and I HAVE to take them.

 

[gcvmom]

TPaul, yes a blessing for me, but then he misses out on a lot because he's sleeping. So we do need to find balance.

GN, I will ask about lumping all the medications at once. I think that initially the psychiatrist wanted to break it up so that he wasn't so sedated... actually, maybe we could spread it out more and he wouldn't be so zonked? Hard to say. Right now he gets 1000mg Depakote ER and 700mg Seroquel XR at 8:30pm. Then another 250mg Depakote ER around 7:00am and 400mg Seroquel XR at 12:30pm. He does have tremor, but I chalk it up to the Depakote, not the Seroquel.

psychiatrist is late getting me a lab slip for Dep. levels. I asked a week ago Friday! I need to call the assistant and say hey what's going on? Not like her to forget. difficult child 2 was only at 80 back in August, so we bumped him up. I have a feeling he's not quite up to 100 yet... but that's just my maternal "gut" talking...