Rant Ahead

Foster daughter is overmedicated in my opinion. She has been taking medication for ADHD since she was five years old. Her case has gotten passed around from doctor to doctor as she has moved around to different foster homes, back to mom, family members and back to foster care.

Has anyone really taken the time to evaluate the need for this medication? Mom insisted on the medication when fd was a little girl and "bouncing off the walls, talking non-stop". Could it be that mom didn't have the patience for her exuberant daughter because she was dealing with her own issues of addiction and homelessness?

About 18 months ago (after a disrupted guardianship and another move), fd was having sleep issues so the doctor prescribed more medication. Then she started having hallucinations and hearing voices which the doctor determined was a side-effect of the ADHD medication. So the nighttime medication was changed to an anti-psychotic drug used to treat bipolar disorder in adults.

Neither of these drugs are covered by her insurance so "prior authorization" is required periodically from the doctor. The pharmacy is rude and unhelpful and there is always a lapse in medication because neither the pharmacy nor the insurance company care if someone misses medication. And, by the way, you can't just buy a few day's worth of pills while you are waiting for the authorization. And you can't determine ahead of time when the new authorization will be needed. And even if you could, you could not get the pharmacy to submit the request early so you could get it back in time.

This makes the social workers very unhappy since it means more paperwork for them what with having to file an incident report for all the missed medication. This means more lectures for us on the importance of making sure that medication is dispensed according to the doctor's instructions.

What is really amazing is that all of these headaches are because of ADHD medication that only stays in fd's system for 4 hours. Not enough to last through the whole school day, let alone through homework, chores and bedtime routine.

Is this really necessary?

You've Gotta Be Kidding

Squeaker left the house this morning to walk to summer school before I got downstairs to give her meds. I had to jump in the car and intercept her. She was wearing a shirt that was not hers and decidedly not dress code or allowed by me either. She had to come back to change clothes and, of course, take meds. I have to watch her swallow them since I found she had stashed some in a dresser drawer instead of taking them.

She tried to argue every which way that the spaghetti strap shirt was allowed (No...even if it wasn't several sizes too small) and that she did wait for someone to give her meds. She is not allowed to leave the house without permission, without taking meds, or without checking in with me or Ana to make sure she is appropriately attired. I told her that she knew her actions were wrong and to stop trying to justify it. Her response, "Like I AM?"

She needs a dictionary or I need to stop using big words, I guess.