Sunny Calmed Down Yesterday

We had a visit break yesterday. We were planning on taking Sunny over to NN's hotel after his gym class, but NN's ankle injury was acting up and it was rainy and we just decided to get together tonight instead, at my mother's. They'll be here until the end of the weekend.

I think this break worked well for Sunny. He was pretty calm yesterday and got all of his stars for good behavior.

At this point, Sunny hasn't had a hitting episode in more than two weeks. He did have a major screaming meltdown last week in the car with Guy, but it didn't involve hitting. I've had to restrain him a couple times since then, but each time I was able to let him back up within seconds.

If this keeps up and maintains for a while, I guess we can start thinking about taking him off medication entirely. The new psychiatrist we saw last month had us do something very smart: get a blood test to make sure the medication wasn't creating any long-term chemical imbalances. They said it would be important to establish a baseline before doing any kind of change. We have a follow-up appointment in October.

I would also be open to a medication change as long as it was a medication with less potential side effects than the one he's currently on. He's never had any side effects yet, but I'm still worried.

I don't think a specifically ADHD drug would help. Sunny's foster mom said that their psychiatrist had already tried him on Adderall... and it greatly improved his school performance, but also made him "mean" and unhappy. I'll take his current average-with-supports school performance over that scenario. The thought of medicating away Sunny's naturally joyful personality is horrifying.