made a decision about Savannah's med

I wrote this letter to Savannah's doc tonight.  I editted it for privacy.

 

August 2, 2007

Dr. S____,

     I wanted to fill you in on our attempt to lower Savannah's Zoloft dosage.

     Week 1: On July 15, we began giving her 1/2 a pill each day (___ mg/day). The first couple of days were shaky. She was more moody & cried a lot, but we knew we should give it more time. I think that may've been a reaction to her fear of dropping the dose. She was worried about how she'd do. By days 3-5, she seemed to "level out". But on days 6 & 7 she had big "dips" again, very moody & crying all day long. Since the original plan had been to try a lower dose for about a week before dropping it any further, we decided not to mess with the dosage yet & give her a little more time on the smaller dose before making any further changes. She was still going up & down too much.

     Week 2 was rough. She seemed to do well in the mornings but by early afternoon every day (around 2:00), it was like the medicine had worn off & she spent the afternoons sobbing over little frustrations. On one day in particular, she spent over an hour crying about something silly. She actually came to me & asked if she needed to go back up on her dosage because she realized that she was getting upset over trivial things and was having a very hard time calming down after an anxiety attack. I was impressed that she could logically SEE this & was able to rationally understand that maybe a different dosage would be helpful. Through teary eyes, she asked for us to let her try the lower dosage for a 'few more days' because she wanted to make it work. She would like to get off the medicine completely, but she is aware that this may be a lifelong problem she must deal with. She's ok with that, but like a diabetic kid might wish not to deal with diabetes, she wishes she didn't have anxiety trouble.

     I have a theory. I suspect that the first week or so, she still had a lot of medicine built up in her system & it pulled her through that first week without an extreme change in her mood/personality, but after that all wore off, she was only getting that little dose each morning & it wore off by afternoon, leaving her with that afternoon "low". Could that be possible?

     Week 3 has been more of the same--a few good days & a few rough ones. This evening, I was watching her walk around in a 'gloomy' sort of slump. It reminded me of the way most kids act when they're sick. You know ...... when they don't have a particular physical ailment or symptom, but they're just dragging around with no energy or enthusiasm like they're on the verge of tears.  Just feeling "blah". This is how she looks. Her mood is low, her energy is almost zilch & it takes a good deal of effort to get her to smile.

     I fear that if we drop her dosage any further we will be in real trouble. As it is now, she's not at the bottom of the barrel so to speak, but she's not herself either. She seems sort of depressed & low and that bothers me. With her about to hit so many BIG changes in life (going into middle school, beginning the youth group at church, starting band at school, beginning dance class again, puberty, etc), I'm wondering if it would be wise to drop her dosage now. If the higher dose gives her that sweet perky personality that we've seen for the past few years, I'm all for staying at the higher dose.

     While we haven't had the extreme issues this time that we had the last time we tried to wean her off the medicine, this time hasn't been positive either. I hate to see my baby girl looking so 'droopy'. She's just not herself. Larry & I talked tonight and made the decision to go back to the full dose tomorrow. We're leaving on vacation this coming week and want her to enjoy the trip---not spend half of it bummed out, crying & feeling down. Bottom line, I hate to give her more medicine than she needs, but the lower dose is less than she needs so we're going back up on the dose. I want my happy, sweet child back. Gloom & doom doesn't flatter her.

     We're leaving on vacation ___day Aug __ & will be gone until __ Aug __th. Please give us a call & share your thoughts if there is anything we need to discuss before the next appointment.

Thank you for your time,

Liz Reeves

home: 903-___-____

cell: 903-___-____

email: Lizreeves2@aol.com