A Sunny Future

Good news on the pain in my side. I exercised several times last week and did a particularly strenuous class on Saturday. On Sunday I felt like I'd been hit with a baseball bat multiple times in the torso. But today my side feels great! The pain is at the lowest level in months, and I can inhale deeply all I want!

Saturday was also a date night. I think it's only the second date night we've had since becoming parents. We went to to an Ethiopian restaurant then saw Cthulhu. I was quite curious to see it after reading this account of the filming. The movie wasn't bad! Not really great, but not bad either. I recommend reading the article if you've ever been involved with movie production; otherwise, it's probably too long and esoteric.

During our kid-free date night, the topic of conversation was of course... the kid. We came to some really positive conclusions. The goal is to have Sunny working up to his potential in school by the time he becomes a teenager. Six years sounds like enough time.

This is assuming he doesn't have "real" ADHD. On the other hand, he might really have the same kind of genetic ADHD that runs in my family. If that's the case, my expectations are going to be a bit different (though not necessarily lower). But at this point, we think it's most likely that if he can work through emotional and anxiety issues over the next six years -- the ones producing symptoms that mirror ADHD -- he'll be at the point where he doesn't need any drugs or major special accommodations to succeed academically.

Guy remarked on how social he is. When we take him to school he always has a smile or wave for the other kids. They all smile and wave back and call him by name.

It's a contrast to a very recent NY Times Magazine article I read about kids diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It does a good job outlining the conflicting theories about bipolar in children. Pretty terrifying stuff. Most of the parents featured in that article were ridiculously rich, throwing money at their problems and still going through hell. It makes me sad to think about the other kids, the ones who live in low-income neighborhoods in New York. Most of them probably end up in prison, which nowadays is the low-income person's only available mental health facility.

I think there are three systems for psychiatric treatment of children. There's one for parents with money that's described in the article. There's another one for parents without money, where parents don't have the resources to get the right diagnoses, treatments or medications. And then the one for foster care kids, in which they're both underdiagnosed and undertreated AND overdiagnosed and overmedicated. It's the worst of both worlds.

I am so far quite unhappy with the quality of treatment under Medicaid we're getting for Sunny. I have to stick with it. We can compensate for it in other ways... for now.

It all gets back to the election. If Obama doesn't win, we're going to be totally screwed.