The A's

The A's are attacking our house.

They happen to be Attention Deficit Disorder, Anxiety and Asthma.

Asthma. Has been worse, has been better. At least Carson is not on an oral steroid due to an earlier flare up, but he has to have his lung functioning assessed again in two months to see if the preventative inhalers have helped to repair damaged lung tissue. We had a late night visit to the urgent care when he started wheezing one night. He had been symptom free for over six months. Welcome back fall allergies and the cold weather. Wish Carson's asthma did not come with you.

(Carson having a treatment in the car on the way to school).

Anxiety runs rampant in our family. My grandma, dad, sister, mother and probably my mother in law are all affected by anxiety. Adeline is a daily nail picker and is worse in new situations and I am always trying to create new ways to help alleviate the nail picking. I thought this nail picking was just a bad habit, but after careful observation I believe it is related to anxiety. It certainly doesn't help when the poor kid sees her, at times, anxious aunt and mother picking at their nails during times of stress. Adeline has become a great reminder that we should all find something to hold in our hands so we don't pick our nails.

(case in point, picking her nails at her preschool Halloween party).

Attention Deficit Disorder. Carson is showing some major signs of ADD and will be seeing the doctor on Monday. Because my husband is ADD I knew genetically it would be a high probability that at least one child would have ADD or ADHD. Then I was really paying attention to my attention and started to notice how distracted I got driving, wandering thoughts, starting one activity and moving to the next without finishing anything, and impulse buying (never anything big, but those little things sure add up). Anyway, I found an adult ADD symptom checklist, and lets just say, since I have lost the checklist 4 times, my probability is pretty high that I have many inattentive boxes checked.

I feel bad that our family is full of neurotransmitters that are not doing their job properly. I feel for my children as this will be a constant battle all their life like it has been for our family. But I do remind myself that I believe my children came to the right house. As a child therapist, I at least feel I have some tools I can impart on them and can truly empathize and understand where they are coming from. Instead of being mad when Adeline is having a total meltdown, I pull out my lovely therapist tools, take a deep breath or two and usually approach her with understanding and compassion, as she may not know what caused the outburst either, she just realizes that she may not have control of her emotions right then.

I am interested to see how Monday's appointment for Carson goes. I am always leery of new medical providers, but at least I am armed with education.