Aspergers - A Family's Story

Since the last update on Harrison's medication change to Strattera things have gone a bit haywire to say the least.  Once Harrison was only taking Strattera his behavior started to deteriorate to the point where he was screaming and arguing most of the time.  He could not sit still had no self control and was generally unhappy most of the time not to mention that we were starting to feel like we were living with an alien. This change took quite a while to manifest itself as we were about 7 weeks into the trial before this started to become a problem.

We were away on holiday in our caravan when we started to feel the biggest impact.  Thank fully Richard was able to drive home and pick up some Ritalin that we still had that we were able to use in conjunction with Strattera until we could see Harrison's Paediatrician.
There were a couple of improvements that we could see with Strattera - Harrison got up earlier and went to bed earlier with no difficulty going to sleep and he had a better appetite.  But after much discussion between the whole family it was decided that Strattera was not the medication for Harrison.

I phoned our Paediatrician on Monday 04th January hoping to be able to bring our mid January appointment forward and as luck would have it we were able to get into see Anthony at 11.00am that very morning.

When we arrived Anthony took one look at Harrison asked one question and said to us " Strattera's not working -  is it?"  We had a bit of a discussion about where things were at and the decision was made there and then to start Harrison back on Ritalin.

The difference is instantaneous and I am happy to report that my dear son is back with us again.  He is quiet and considerate.  Able once again to concentrate on one thing at a time but best of all he is his happy self again.

Life is starting to settle back down for all of us again.

Many people my wonder why we decided to try new medication when we were having no problems on the old medication. The old saying "If it ain't broke don't fix it" comes to mind but Richard and I believe in giving Harrison the best opportunities that are available to him.  That means that sometimes for us we need to travel down a road that is unknown.  If we hadn't trialed the Strattera we would never have known and would always have wondered if a change in meds could been beneficial to Harrison.

On the plus side we now know how good Ritalin works for Harrison and that medication wise at this point in time we are definitely on the right track for Harrison and a happy healthy family life.
It  hasn't been an easy two months for any of us but we never look back we are now looking forward and this year will bring more challenges and successes as we focus all our efforts on our beautiful boy!