So I hit day 3 and already had a whole day without posting. Tuesday was supposed to be a day off for me, as I wrote in my previous post. I took off with my girlfriend and headed to Gig Harbor, WA to relax for a while sans kids. It was going quite well until around 11:45 in the morning when I got a call from my older son's school:
Apparently he was given the opportunity to be leader of the day for his class. He's in Kindergarten, and he generally really enjoys these bits of responsibility that are awarded him at times. However, this time he began stomping around the room for no apparent reason. His teacher then told him if he didn't stop, he'd be fired as the leader of the day. At that point my son lost it. He began throwing tantrums and acting up. When another staff member came to take him to the office, he kicked the staff member. Suffice it to say, I had to go pick him up, so there went my vacation day. While this behavior is in no way acceptable nor age appropriate, it seems a good opportunity ti provide a small backstory. My boys' mother and I separated in August of 2007 and are now divorced. He was just barely 3 at that time. Since then he hasn't had a lot of consistent contact with her, which hasn't always sat well with him. Previous teachers of his have expressed their concern that he was emotionall younger than his age. When that concern is paired with my knowledge of everything that happened in his young life, it seems he stopped emotionally developing around that time. We have made progress in catching him back up, but it is an ongoing issue. To top all of that off, there seem to be fairly obvious signs of ADHD in him. I hate typing that. To this day I have a firm belief that ADHD in this country is grossl over-diagnosed. I believe that as a society we're doing all we can to absolve anyone of any personal accountability, so it couldn't possibly be that you can barely even spank a child anymore that causes them to feel they can act out, right? ADHD is, in my opinion, a way of many parents blaming someone else for what they're doing, or not doing as it might be. Now that I've gotten that out, I do believe it exists. For the last few years, people have brought it up to me as a possibility and I've put it away in the back of my mind. One of my downfalls is that I have an extraordinary amount of confidence in my ability to fix any situation, given the time and opportunity. Most of the time it's one of my favorite traits about myself. On occasion it can bite me in the ass. Being that I'm aware of that though, I try to prevent it from doing any harm. I say that because I have to at least recognize the possibility that my son might have ADHD. If I recognize that possibility, I also have to recognize the potential ways to treat it. I tend to be even more against the medication than the diagnosis to begin with. But I've also read countless stories to this point about kids who didn't get medicated, but wished they had, or did get medicated and it changed everything. He's developing a negative reputation amongst his classmates because of his erratic behavior and it's going to begin effecting his self-esteem, assuming it hasn't already. Therefore, we have an appointment with his pediatrician tonight to begin the process of a hopeful diagnosis one way or the other.
That was most of what went on Tuesday. I woke up Wednesday and weighed 255.8. So that's another 3.4 pounds down. Again, I'm positive it's mostly water weight and my body flushing itself of the crap that was in it, but it feels good nonetheless.
Wednesday I got off work and went to pick up the boys. I had a good discussion with my older son's teacher. He didn't have a great day, but it wasn't horrible and he didn't throw any fits or hit anyone. She was happy I was taking him to see the pediatrician. She couldn't say "ADHD", but made it fairly obvious that's where her concern was. For the first time I felt she was truly concerned about him. Her and I have had conversations before about him, but it always just felt like problem solving and I wans't always convinced she was concerned for him as much as she was the class. However, last night she continually reiterated what a sweet and brilliant boy he is, but that he just doesn't seem to have the capability to stop himself sometimes. Anytime he does something wrong, he's immediately remorseful and knows exactly what he did and why it was wrong. She used an example of the classroom learning to read a book. It would be someone's turn to read a word and instead of waiting he'd just blurt it out. It's a small thing, yes, but demonstrates that he just doesn't make the connection between what his impulse wants to do and what he should do, until immediately after doing it. I hope this conversation, combined with the new diet I'm creating for him, his counseling and the doctor's appointment he has tonight can be a turning point for everyone involved.
After leaving his school, I went to my girlfriend's house to help her pick up and organize some things. Her kids had been at their dad's house for a couple weeks and were coming back so she wanted things as clean as possible. Once we did that, she took off for the airport to get them and the boys and I went home. We read some stories and then they went to bed.
This morning, I weighed in at 255.6. Sadly, I can't keep losing 3-4 pounds a day. =) I know I'll have days it might even go up due to muscle growth, the plateau effect and so on, but as long as it keeps going down, I'll take it. So that's almost 8 pounds so far. One day at a time ladies and gentlemen.
I know, this is becoming more about my life than the weight loss, but honestly, it all ties in. Things always try to get in the way. You just have to decide whether or not you'll allow it to happen.
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