As peanut butter is to jelly, so is ADHD to CHD. Unfortunately the two tend to go hand in hand. Children that have gone under bypass are 5 times more likely to develop ADHD. As Katja aged we noticed it becoming more difficult for her to focus on tasks. As her Chorea became more under control, her ADHD started to show. Life with a CHD child is always one step forward and then being knocked on your butt. We get up in this house, brush ourselves off and keep making steps. So we rolled with it, found treatment and tried to help Katja through it.

In the end her symptoms were so bad we resorted to medication. So many different meds and nothing seemed to help unless it was at very high doses, which then caused significant weight loss in an already petite child. After playing the “ADHD Med Game” we decided to try Adderall. It seemed to give us moderately improved symptoms at a low dose without weight loss.

Great, we found something that helped. Katja was improving in school and her weight was stable. Then we started to notice her signature “tells”. Those signs only a parent with a CHD child will notice. Why is she so crabby? Why are we whining over a pillow? Why did you fall asleep on the bus ride home? Why is your skin looking more blue these days? Five years, it had been five whole years since Katja’s last OHS. We were on borrowed time.