Houston

Last weekend Ayden Jane and I traveled to Houston to meet up with a few of the families that are also taking Pitolisant. Well, the point to the weekend was to meet with Drs. at Texas Children's Hospital to discuss pediatric narcolepsy and Pitolisant and PWS and better characterizing sleep in PWS.

Ayden Jane and I ended up flying in too late to actually meet with any of the doctors as the agenda switched a bit after our tickets were purchased but Ayden Jane had a wonderful time hanging out with her friends.

It was interesting to see how relaxing it was for her to be around kids who operate in her realm, so to speak. They have similar food rules, the have a little slower processing so Ayden Jane is never left behind. They all accept each other for exactly who they are. They totally get it that each one is being the best person they can be and that sometimes it's just hard.

I had a great time watching the kids run around, play hide-n-seek and just enjoy being together. No pressure. Ayden Jane was firing well for most of the weekend. She did crash a bit while we were at the airport. She really wanted to hang out with J for a little while before our plane took off but AJ was really just not much fun. After we said goodbye I finally got smart and found her some caffeine and poof! She was right back on track and just in the nick of time! We got on the plane and then it was delayed... yep, we had to sit and wait a while and if she hadn't rebounded so well it was going to be a long, long wait. She did beautifully. Pulled out a sticker book and dressed the movie stars in outfits and was GREAT.

We returned late Sunday night and I was tired as well but we both got up Monday morning and went about our days.

I need to spend the summer getting her lots of opportunity to hang out with kids. Being a youngest by so many years and having such awesome big siblings, she spends a lot of time with "adults". We pulled her from school and she has been spending even less time with kids her age not to mention that she started acting a bit crazy from all the stress before we pulled her.

I'm out in a couple weeks. Noah comes home. Summer camps and beach/pool days begin. Hoping it is a wonderful summer! 

Overdue Update

I can't believe it's been a month! Okay, I can believe it because time has been flying. When I left off we were considering bumping Pitolisant. I chatted with Dr. Miller and for a few reasons we opted to wait. Mostly, I was grasping at straws to figure some things out that honestly, had nothing to do with Pitolisant.

Ayden Jane did not have a banner year in school. Not sure exactly where it went off the rails but it became more and more obvious that there was no way we were going to get things back on track. It was beginning to really hurt Ayden Jane's health, well being and ability to learn. By this point, Ayden Jane was not sleeping well, waking with night mares, snapping defensively at most comments, her posture was tense and hunched over, her voice unsure and the tics... oh how the tics were developing. She was becoming anxious about food and her weight was rising. Basically, PWS was creeping in as the anxiety escalated. I spoke with Dr. Miller about all of it and she said to pull her from school. She would fill out whatever form I needed but that Ayden Jane needed to be removed from that setting.

I was honestly unsure how it was all going to work but I could not handle watching the tics that shook her body take over. After about 3 days the anxiety seemed to wane. A week in there was so much more laughter. So much better sleep. No more night mares and the tics were down to mild movements. The food anxiety disappeared and eventually the defensive snapping at us relaxed. I was getting my sweet, confident, funny Ayden Jane back. I began to realized just how bad things had been as I saw the relief.

So how has the schooling piece gone? Great. Ayden Jane works so very hard and Gary is home with her. Their routine is to go to dunkin' donuts and get a coffee and work there for a couple hours. (Ironic, I know) Ayden Jane is focused and gets a lot of work done. Her love of learning has returned and she is like a sponge. The other great thing is that she is truly excited to go back to school next year. She is relieved to finish the year this way, but does miss seeing other kids and the activity of school.

Last week she went to her school to take state standardized testing and did great. No problems, no anxiety ... almost gleeful to go. Here's to 4 more weeks of medical home bound, and then SUMMER.