One Response to “Confusion & Comorbidities”

1. 

   NinaP says:
   

   May 26, 2011

   Hi!! I am enjoying this site tremendously. I wanted to add (oopppss….ADHD) one comment about the one kid with ADHD that I know about. My middle son Roque; he was always so incredibly different from my first son (different fathers for both). None of my parenting skills that worked so well with #1 worked at all with #2. At times I felt he couldn’t possibly have come out of my body…….because I didn’t understand him at all.

   It became clear in Kindergarten that Roque would need help in Grade 1; we had him extensively tested over that Summer. Lo and Behold! He had ADHD. He also had a Learning Disorder: they called it an “Auditory Processing Problem”. I was flabbergasted on one hand, and relieved on the other—to find out that he wasn’t really an Alien, and to learn how to talk with him so that he could understand.

   It is odd to me. A few years previously, I had taught Parenting Skills to parents with At Risk children. They all wanted the drugs; I wanted to teach actual parenting skills. I used PET, that teaches how to use Natural Consequences for behaviors, or use Logical ones sometimes. But in the present, I was using every possible parenting skill I could to help Roque, and it still wasn’t enough. I kept him on a strict schedule, always telling him about 5 minutes ahead of time when we were going to change activities. I minimized distractions in the house. I always let him play outside, as appropriate, because he absolutely needed all that activity. I helped him to learn things for school using several different modalities, like tracing letters on mild sand paper, to activate his kinesthetic system. In school, the first word he learned to write was when they let all the kids dip their bare feet into colored paint and then “walk/paint” a rainbow!! Roque learned RED! He was so excited and happy. I also carefully structured his diet; we did not eat foods that were not found in nature.

   Anyway (SEE! I have ADD, too! I tell stories that go all around the barn!!)…….Anyway, we put him on Ritalin, and it helped him immensely. Roque had begun to have problems interacting with other children his own age. He thought if a joke was funny, it should be funny ten times. He couldn’t read social cues, so he played well with children one or two years younger than he was. He even played well with my youngest son, his baby brother, who was 4 years younger. They played so well together….. Somehow, the Ritalin helped him to focus at school, plus he was in a Special Ed class where the teacher let all the kids work standing up at the blackboard—-which I thought was brilliant.

   I wanted to comment at how much Roque fit the profile the doctor talked about above. I wish I could give you more insight into how he grew up, what his interests were, what kind of impact Roque made on the world, but Roque died in 1993. He got a rare illness and died within six weeks. You can read more about his last weeks of life at KawasakiDiseaseFoundation.org or you can google his name: Roque Wikstrom Aguilar. Doctors still don’t know what causes KD, and their only treatment is boosting the child’s immune system with IVIG……but it didn’t work. The most devastating symptom of Kawasaki disease is the development of coronary artery aneurysms, and if they continue to grow like Roque’s did, then they are called Giant CAA. He collapsed in my arms, I did CPR on him in the ambulance, I had to tell the doctors when it was time to stop CPR, and I held him in my lap until he grew cold. It is the most horrible thing that ever happened to me in my life.

   Harold, thank you for all the laughs you have given me through the Red Green Show. And thanks to all of you involved with this website. I have my own diagnosis of ADD now, and I take Vyvanse to try to help it, and various anti-depressants ever since my little boy died. My marriage ended, but both my other sons are doing well. And I am a Grandmother now! I am not particularly happy, because even happy things are so bittersweet. But I am surviving.

   Thanks for listening.

   Namaste, Nina Wikstrom Aguilar

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