Forgot to see the man lady about a dog.

So today, apart from work, I had 2 things to remember. One was that Autoglass were coming to repair the glass roof on my car and the other was to take the dog to the Vets at 6pm for a post op check up. For Autoglass , all I had to do was be home which was easy as I had arranged to work from home. The vets appointment was in my phone calendar, so there was no way I could forget that. I finished my work for the day about 4:45pm and thought that it would be really good to take the dog for a walk early, so I'd have a bit more time in the evening. So by 5.15pm I was off on our usual 7 Km walk around Manor Farm Country Park which take about 1.5 hours or so, depending on how long we play fetch sticks in the rivers and streams and who we meet along the way. So I'd walked about 1 Km (I know this because my Walking App on my phone bleeted at me in its female but yet somewhat robotic voice that I had reached 1 Km), when it suddenly dawned on me I was meant to be at the Vets. I looked at my watch and it was 5.30pm, and then, as if our brains had connected from a kilometer away, my wife phones me to tell me I should be going to the Vets. Of course I hurried back, and fortunately the Vets is just around the corner from where I live, so I made it in plenty of time, and saw the lady Vet who I sometimes bump in to while out dog walking. So even with reminders and barely anything worthy of a todo list, I forgot. Luckily I remembered in time, but next time I might not.

Why things take longer when you have ADHD

So this is just a typical example of what happens to me.  Today I'm having diabetic eye screening done (I'm pre-type 2 in case you were wondering), so I needed to remember not to put my eyes in (I actually mean contact lenses but I always find saying "putting my eyes in" amusing), so what did I do, yes I put my eyes in.  "Oh well, I'll just take them out later.", I said to myself.  Anyway one of the lens was being uncomfortable today so I thought I would go back upstairs to take them out and that way I would not be frantically rushing to do this as my appointment time closes in.  I tell my wife I'm going upstairs to do this and she asks, "can you bring your washing down.". I acknowledge her request with a Star Wars Battle Droid "roger, roger", smiling amusingly at myself as I walk away. "Don't forget the washing!  Don't forget the washing!", I tell myself as I climb the stairs.  I get to the bedroom, pick up the clothes, and come back down and put them near the washing machine.

 I sit back down and think, "hmm, my contact lens is a bit uncomfortable.", and then I realise I forgot to do the thing I wanted to do in the first place, so trundle back upstairs to take my lenses out.

Stuff like this happens every day, and this is why things take so long to do as I am forever having to go back and complete tasks that I went to do but doesn't happen because I got distracted by something, was asked to do something else as well, the phone rings, there is a knock at the door, well you get the drift.

More Speed, less haste.

So had a chat with my Psychiatrist about the new ADHD medication and as I wasn't getting any side effects and I thought there may be some subtle improvement she suggested to increase the Elvanse Adult from 30mg to 50mg starting to day.  Now I only have 30mg tablets currently so I can't just double the dose. So to get around this I pull apart the capsule and mix with water and drink two thirds of it i.e. 20mg, so I dissolved it into 150ml of water and drank 100ml and took the other capsule as normal.

Anyway, today I feel like I'm buzzin' (yep it's an amphetamine based drug which is what Speed is).  No anxiety or panic attacks and I'm getting some stuff done.  After a couple of hours I took my blood pressure and it was a normal (for me) 139/69 with a pulse of 71.

It's just day 1, so lets not be too hasty and say its working just yet. I'm working from home today and there are many distractions, "Hey look, a Chinook helicopter!". There are no squirrels in my garden so I have to go with what I can see, and he wasn't flying that high, maybe 1000ft :)

It's not just one thing.

I find when I tell people I have ADHD they seem a bit perplexed. I might get a direct response of "You're not hyperactive. Are you?", or an indirect one like "isn't that, like being hyperactive?" implying that they didn't think I was hyperactive, then there's the disbelieving response of "isn't that something kids get?", and the denial "Oh really?".  I can understand where they're coming from because if you told me I had ADHD  a decade ago, I probably would have laughed, a bit like when you think you're having an "OCD" moment (which incidentally has a number of different types and symptoms and is more than just needing to make things straight or in order).

If I told someone I had a cold, they'd expect maybe a sore throat, blocked or runny nose, perhaps sneezing, a cough, a hoarse voice and that I might be generally feeling unwell.  If I didn't have a cough they wouldn't look at me in disbelief. A cold is more than just a cough, or sneeze and similarly ADHD is more than just hyperactivity. In fact in adulthood, hyperactivity is more internalized, but can manifest in other ways like jiggling of legs, or tapping fingers, clicking pens, much to the annoyance of your colleagues. It can also feel like you just have to get up and do something but you have no idea what. So as an adult you may not appear to be hyperactive.

I'm not going to list all the symptoms here because there is plenty of sites that already have it, and I'll probably mention them in future posts, but like a cold, you don't have to have all of them to have ADHD and some of them might be worse than others. Oh, and there's 3 types of ADHD too.

Random update.

Can't believe that even though I have a daily reminder on my phone to update my blog that a week has passed already. I guess the Round Tuits were in short supply.

Anyway, its been a week on the Elvance and so far no side effects that I can tell.  Not sure if they're having an effect or not because if they are it's very subtle.  I do seem to have written a lot more this week than I usually do, I even managed to arrange for the dog to have his bits chopped off, but then it could have been the reminder from my wife that prompted me to pick up the phone. So watch this space.  I have a review on Monday so we'll see if the Doc recommends continuing or upping the dose.

And now for something completely different.

OK, so the Concerta XL didn't work and I've stopped taking it and took the excess tablets back to the Chemist (they're a controlled drug and they keep them locked up because people like to just take them as they are amphetamine based).

So today I'm taking a new drug called Elvanse Adult 30mg  (ADHD, it's not just for kids :) ).  So far no side effects, but no improved focus either but maybe it needs to build up in the system and the Psychiatrist did say she'd review in a month, so watch this space!

The long name for Elvanse Adult is lisdexamfetamine dimesylate, not sure how I'm going to remember that but for now I'll just break it up like this: lis-dex-am-feta-mine di-mesyl-ate.