No sleep till..............

Well, the new school still kicks serious butt! Ricci is in the midst of an evaluation of what medication works best. During the IEP and the week following, Ricci displayed signs of a strange tic like behavior in his neck, this is a side effect of medication and to be honest, it freaked his dad and me out…. A LOT!
So we tried letting him clear the medication out of his system, and in the process Ricci had some rough days at school where he couldn’t focus for even a few seconds. He flipped pencils, defied teachers, and told the staff, he simply could not do anything because his mother did NOT GIVE HIM MEDICINE!!!
Let me explain the morning, "Ricci here’s breakfast", he starts eating, then says, “Mom, where is my medicine?” (We usually give it to him in yogurt, I didn’t mention it because his father asked that we give him time) "Ricci your fine, today you don’t need it". He said ok and carried on eating and joking at the table as usual. Well, apparently he somehow decided this was unacceptable….
So with that information, let me continue… Ricci had such an “interesting” day that he actually ended up in the principal’s office and explained to the principal that he couldn’t work without medication. I have no idea where this belief came from as he never learned why he was taking this medication, it is just part of our routine. At any rate the amazing staff at BV called us and asked to keep lines of communication open and that we keep them posted on Ricci’s progress, input from his psychiatrist, etc. In the three almost four weeks at the new school, Ricci’s teacher has touched base with me in person and on the phone more than the entire team did at Sunnyside… In fact, at Sunnyside, when he changed medication, I asked the teacher to share with me how it went, and when she called me she said all was well. However, his aid wrote a very detailed account on how hard his day was and how he had a very difficult time. In other words at the other school, the aid WAS his teacher and primary point of contact for us, and the teacher was too busy to be bothered… she didn’t see Ricci unless he made problems directly for her!
Well, the medication assessment continues. I took Ricci Saturday to the psychiatrist, and we are exploring a couple different options. One is to return to using Dexedrine. This time at 20mg. We talk daily to the teacher, she calls us with updates, and Tuesday this week he had another difficult day. He decided to play the part of Dylan McKay of Beverly Hills 90210… but in elementary school and he lurked on the playground periphery- hood up adrift from his peers … the loner …the misunderstood outsider. This is not to diminish the difficulty in meeting people at a new school, but to simply note that my beautiful, silly boy also has a dramatic, lonely- artist side. He asked as a reward for last week’s good behavior to have a notebook to sketch in at school during recess… in lieu of playing with friends.
So yesterday Ricci took his recommended increased dose of Dexedrine, and he had a stellar golden Ticket day… NO JOKE it was truly a golden Ticket day, he got a Golden Ticket from his math teacher. Then he had a great day with Aunt Anielle… with only minor strange behavior like asking every three minutes if he could tell her something (even thought regardless of the answer the adult gives he will indeed tell one something), but the twist came at 8:00 p.m. after story time. Ricci sat there as I fought to stay awake with my cold in full swing, with his eyes wide open continuing to tell me many many “somethings” and I finally left him hoping he’d fall asleep. Instead he yelled from the bedroom that he could hear the almost silent television. He also got up to try to catch the “mice on the roof through the transporter..” with a broom, and then he needed to go outside to get the animas to be quiet, then he removed his blankets from the bed, and made anew bed on the floor…. Decided he no longer needed pillows once I directed him back to bed citing the many benefits of sleeping flat on the memory foam mattress…..and so on and so on until 11:00 p.m. At this point I once again layed down with him coaxing him to sleep. He finally relaxed at 11:30……… It was what I imagine a meth addict to seem like, and it was scary, freaky, disturbing, etc…
But today is a new day, he woke up happy, loving, “normal” and ate his breakfast, took his once again lowered dose of medication. We sat talking on the couch and I told him I hope he has a perfect day (meaning fun and positive) and that he makes lots of friends, and he told me he would (I love his courage!) I crossed my fingers as he left for school with his dad and hoped deep inside that today would truly be a great day for my Ricci!!
………….And then I called his psychiatrist!