[qs mom]

Little over a year ago, Q started getting SSI and therefore Medicaid. His psychiatrist and therapist don't accept Medicaid.

It took 6 months to find a new therapist that would take Medicaid. She's ok. Not as good as the one we were seeing, but it's what we got. His ped has been writing sripts for what he's been on for over 2 years - Adderall & Risperdal.

Therapist gets us a appointment with psychiatrist in her office. I mention that he's mood swings are becoming a little more often. So, we decide to up the Risperdal by a 1/2 mg. So he takes 1/2 mg afterschool and 1 mg before bed.

Fast forward a week. He is talking funny. He has a geographic tongue, so the lines look a little redder, but no swelling or anything. He tells me his tongue is tickly and that is why he's talking funny. This was Sunday. On Saturday he was at the dentist. I think reaction to either the latex, or fluroide, or ex-ray stuff. Take him to the ped Monday night, they refer me back to the psych.

So, psych says that this is a rare occurance and to put him back to 1 mg daily, which I already did. He was seriously overmedicated on top of the tongue thing. He prescribes a med that he says is like Benedyrl. Which I don't care for, he reacts poorly to Benedryl.

So, my sister picks up the med for me so that he can have both doses today. (she gets out of work much earlier than I do) The pharmacy doesn't have the med. They gave her 2 1/2 tablets. I didn't recognize the name as the one the doc gave me on the phone. I look at it and it's prescribed for Parkinson's.

A co-worker freaked out. Risperdal killed her mother. Some nut shrink gave it to her for behavior issues at a nursing home, she had dementia - NO, NO right on the label. Anyway, she tells me that this tongue thing is usually permanent and that I should stop the Risperdal immediately.

I know that I can't do that, it needs to be weaned. But, I'm FREAKING out! And trying not to let my kid know that.

And I don't have a whole lot of confidence in this psych.

[aspenhall]

YIKES, I hope you can get this resolved quickly!

[lucyjoy]

My son takes cogentin to counteract the side effects of the risperdal. Did the ped give him the perscription that was like benedryl thinking it was an allergy or is did the psych doc give you something to counteract the risperdal?

I would not just stop the risperdal without a consult. You could get a violent reaction

[athikers]

Oh my.... I'm so sorry!

I have no advice, just hugs.

[marythemom]

My son took cogentin to counteract the side effects of Geodon. He had joint issues, mouth movements and some other things. We eventually got him off the Geodon. His sister recently started having issues with her jaw freezing up so we are removing the Geodon. They both switched/ are switching to Seroquel.

[qs mom]

Cogentin is the new med. The psych is the one that said it was like benedryl.

It only gets better. He went to the nurse yesterday with sore cheeks. They checked his throat and it was red and a slight fever. So, I check with the pharmacist. Cogentin could cause him to overheat - red, sore cheeks.

But I took him to see the ped today anyway. His step was negative. He has no swelling, his throat is red waaaay in the back. From dripping. So, he either has a little virus or allergies. I'd say probably allergies. But with the combo of meds that he is on right now, she didn't want to prescribe anything more.

He's eating. Drinking. So, I'm giving advil or tylnol and waiting it out.

I just wish the Cogentin really kicks in and his speech gets back to normal and fast. I get more and more nervous every day that it won't go away and that it might be permanent. He sounds drunk. He's starting to over compensate with his lips and looks so odd when he speaks.

[lucyjoy]

Q's mom, unless the mouth thing and speech is caused by the virus he has, I'd be highly concerned. Insist the the p-doc see him or tell you how to work him off the risperdal. Some of the side effects can be permanant. His speech should not be impaired. The pediatrician didn't seem to think his speech change was an issue?

And cogentin isn't really like benedryl. My son also has allergies and takes benedryl or a perscription allergy med with the cogentin and the risperdal/depakote combo.

If the speech continues to worsen, try the ER.

[qs mom]

They both didn't think it was permanent. But I'm still worrying about it.

We backed the Risperdal back down to the original dose. But, if I don't see some results quickly, I'm going to be making a trip somewhere - hospital, ped, psych.

He does have an appointment in the morning with the counselor that referred us to this psych.

[qs mom]

His counselor cancelled yesterday. Grrr.

But good news is his speech is almost back to normal. He actually sounds normal, but he is still being a little more exagerated with his mouth movements. It isn't very much, only enough that I notice, no one else does.

My Church had a woman's breakfast yesterday. They had a cute little video Kids Say the Darnest Things kind of things. They had taped the kids in SUnday school last week and asked them questions - Who wrote the Bible? What is sin? Who is Jesus? What did he do for us? They were so cute. Q was in a couple of them. When asked who wrote the Bible, my son said "the author". He did very well on the other questions that they had clips of him in. But the last question was "What are tribulations?" Of course, none of the kids knew. But Q kept looking around, thinking, rolling his eyes. He was so funny, that they cut his into 3 or 4 clips and showed his in between the rest, with a comment on it "still thinking". I want to see if they'll burn me a copy. But you could see that something was wrong with his tongue/mouth/speech in the video - it was so apparent to me, but not to anyone else.