adhd

[arenarook]

my 10 yr old daughter has had adhd for the past 6 yrs and is on focolin rx now 50mg in am and 10mg in afternoon. with her she has had trouble with memory loss for some time now and cant retain information from the past or at times 30 seconds after being told. she was giagnosed 3 yrs ago with seizure tendencies after fainting in my arms. her doc has not explored this further. i mention her memory issue and he says its from the adhd, when i talked about her having trouble in school he said "she has a learning dissorder mom" ! we have a 504 plan for school, they have been working with her. i guess i want to know if i am insane for thinking there has been something missed or if it is adhd. i feel that there is an underlined issue that is missed and when i see her doc its oh let up her meds....in 4 yrs she went from 15mg a day to now 60mg a day.  any information would be great

[arenarook]

thank you so much for responding i will look in to more. this whole thing scares me and i want the best for her threw her life... i think its my mommy intuition kicking up that there is somehting not right. again thank you and i will post if i think of more.

[Sandman2]

      Hi arenarook, it would be nice if your doctor took more time to explain to you how ADHD works.
      Its not that your daughter has memory loss.  Its that she is easily distracted when getting the information and thus the information never gets learned.  As a teacher who has had many ADHD kids, I would say this inability to remember things that I was teaching was very common.   And, of course, the meds should her with paying attention.  However, they do wear off and if you are asking her to do things at night or before the meds take effect then you would definitely see a problem.  And that can make homework a problem as its difficult to retain the info you learned at  night when you were not on the meds.  By the way, what do her teachers say about her ability to remember things said in class (when she is on her meds)?
     What I do worry about is she is on a pretty high dose of Focalin XR.  "Doses above 30 mg/day in pediatrics and 40 mg/day in adults have not been studied and are not recommended."  So I do kind of wonder what kind of a doctor you are seeing.   Typically, if a person is not getting the benefit of the medication and you are at a high level - another med is tried.   I mean Focalin is good stuff, but everybody is slightly different and so are the meds - so it can be kind of a trial and error thing.
     Finally, as I mentioned, its too bad you have not been given more info on ADHD.  And, if you do have any more specific questions, please feel free to post.  I would highly suggest that you buy the book, "The ADD/ ADHD Answer book," by Susan Ashley. Its about 10 bucks through Amazon last time I checked.  You will find it extremely helpful.  And it also has a great part with suggestions for things to include in the 504 plan.
    Hope this helps.  Best wishes.