“New Year, New Boy?!” – Laura

Hey everyone! I hope the new year is off to a great start!

Levi has been in first grade this year, and absolutely LOVES school!  I am so glad for that, although I always wonder and worry how he is doing academically, socially, and behaviorally.  He has an amazing teacher that has not let him slip between the cracks and has been in touch with me A LOT about his lack of focus in school. UGH!!  I finally made an appointment with his pediatrician to address this issue.  She talked about his enlarged tonsils and how that would affect his sleep and in turn the focus the next day at school.  We avoided this road a year and a half ago because of the fear of him not being able to take the supplements needed to sustain life.  You know how sodium benzoate and ornithine taste & burn on the way down. The thought of him going through that with the potential setbacks had us avoid it…for the time being.  This time we knew we had to get this done.  Even the ENT told us enlarged tonsils and sleep apnea is the number one reason kids this age have focus issues at school.  I knew it was time.  So, Levi had the tonsillectomy and things were going great…until he refused any pain meds on day 2 of recovery when he most likely started needing them.  He was without his GAMT medicine for too long as well, but thankfully nothing negative came of that.  We did get through the rough patch and he is healed up now!

Although I wanted to call the doctors’ bluff about the focus issue, I thought better of it since they are the medical professionals, not me!  Levi went back to school in the new year, after recovery and was AMAZING in class.  He completed his work on time, listened, and paid attention.  I was thrilled.  Just beaming with pride because he was proud of himself; that was a first.  I could see that he really CARED!  Well, I talk past tense because this lasted 2 weeks.  Only two weeks.  He went back to school this week and we’re back to the old routine.  Emails, notes, and calls about how he is preoccupied and isn’t finishing his work, etc.  This is where we always resort back to with this GAMT diagnosis.  We find ourselves asking… is this Levi and his personality, or is GAMT affecting him in a way that needs attention? We just don’t know, and it’s frustrating.  Here’s to the tenth motivational speech working this week. Ha!