Monthly Archives: September 2011

SlutWalkJHB 2011 Done and Dusted!

Posted on by

On Saturday morning I was up bright an early, showered and shaved and made up a little, so I could get myself and my two men to SlutWalkJHB! I also had a cupcake order I had to finish for it to be collected, but that’s besides the point.

🙂

At about 9h45, my Glugster, my knucklehead and I climbed into our car along with my sister in law, Peaches- followed by sister C in her car with her baby L and stepdaughter D- and we headed for the Zoo Lake Sports Club. The weather was absolutely perfect for walking in IMHO, but not so great for scantily clad SlutWalkers unfortunately… I suck at estimating numbers, especially when it comes to people, but I think there were about a thousand people? I do wish there had been more, but I think the chilly weather really put a damper on people’s enthusiasm.

There were a whole lot of people we knew who we saw before, during and after the walk- MeeA, Jenty, Louisa, Marieks, Frankie and ExMi to mention a few. And of course I got to see and congratulate the inimitable Sass (you must go and read her speech so that you can hear why she took on Jo’burg SlutWalk, and so that the pictures of her quick-change will make sense) and some of her team and her helpers on pulling off the organising of the Johannesburg SlutWalk- Gina, Nadia and Ernst… At one point I was squealing and hugging and greeting so many people that my Glugster asked if I had invited everyone personally!

😀

I am really glad we didn’t make arrangements to do the walk with anyone, I would have felt really bad for anyone who hung back because they had to keep up with us! We started the walk about 3/4 from the front of the pack, but at one stage I looked behind me and all I saw was a police car! I very quickly told my sister C and my Glugster that we needed to pick up the pace a little! I made two posters for us to carry as we walked:

STOP TEACHING “DON’T GET RAPED” START TEACHING “DON’T RAPE“

1 IN 4 IS NOT A STATISTIC – ITS A CRYING SHAME

I had every intention of taking pictures and Tweeting while we walked, but my darling Glugs and I very quickly knew we were going to do little more than focus on breathing as we walked, never mind chanting slogans and Tweeting! I gave my camera to my knucklehead and I think he did the SlutWalk 3 times with all the running up and down he did! He got some awesome photos though- most of the ones in the gallery at the bottom of this post are his. We made sure we were in comfortable walking shoes because I KNEW there was no way I would make that kind of walk in heels, as tempting as that was. There were guys doing the 3.7km walk in high heels though! It was fascinating to see what people had chosen to wear for the walk, and some of the posters were fanTAStic! I think the oldest SlutWalker was 80-something, and I reckon my baby nephew L was the youngest at 7 weeks old! The atmosphere was electric and you couldn’t help but feel energised by the people around you and the cars making a fuss as they drove past the column of people.

I was very proud to have been a part of something I think is so vitally important in our country- a call to stop blaming the victims of sexual assault- and my first ever protest march!

Brace yourselves bunnies, SlutWalk is going to be HUGE!!

I’ve uploaded photos to Facebook and to Flickr, and there’s a Flickr group where you can see photos from several other people too.

Ooh, and before I forget, through the team that coordinated and planned SlutWalk, I Said No was born. Its a site where victims of assault can tell their stories, anonymously should they choose to do so.

Why Has The Meds Stopped Working!

Posted on by
If you are parent to an ADHD child, then in all likelihood you have asked this question! Most likely when you were only two or three months into your child’s diagnosis and treatment!
Let me see if I can answer the question for you.
I’m going to start by trying to clear up some of the confusion around medication.
The thing to keep in mind when it comes to Ritalin (methylphenidate) is that it has been studied and used for well over 50 years, and when correctly prescribed for the correct diagnosis, it works very well. Regular Ritalin is metabolised by the human body within 4 hours. It does not build up in the body and does not need to be prescribed by weight. It does have side-effects, but all forms of medication have side-effects and everyone reacts to them differently. What Ritalin does- when properly prescribed and monitored– is to chemically assist the brain to send the messages it’s not sending on its own. Once the brain is sending those messages correctly, a child or adult correctly diagnosed with ADHD will be able to focus on instructions, learning, and behaviour modification therapies.
Simply put, the ADHD brain is unable to properly process instructions and input, and trying to teach a child how to react to situations or complete tasks and manage time will be all but impossible without some form of intervention. Sometimes medication is the intervention that is needed.
If you have the right doctor- and here I must stress that a pediatric neurologist or a psychiatrist isn’t automatically qualified to treat ADHD– and the correct diagnosis, Ritalin may help your child. You will very quickly be able to see if it will make a difference for your child. If you do decide to try medication, I would suggest you start with at least a 10 day trial. Less than 10 days may not be an accurate depiction of whether it helps your child simply because he will react positively to getting extra attention from you and his teachers and anyone else who may be aware that he is on a Ritalin trial. Within 10 days however, the “placebo effect” of the extra attention will have “worn off” and you will better be able to tell if the biology of the medication is actually helping him.
Does that make sense?
Now this careful and close monitoring in the months following a child’s diagnosis will actually cause positive results, even without medication. You’re suddenly giving a lot of extra attention to a child who thrives on it. Many children who are newly diagnosed and treated for ADHD, Aspergers and other similar issues have a phenomenal couple of months where their treatment team thinks they’re finally sailing along, but after a month or two they’re right back to square one! This is largely because the first few months of extra focus from parents and teachers, extra focus on behaviour modification and different discipline styles by parents and so on, starts to slack off when things start going well- and this puts everything back where it started.
Its not that “the meds isn’t working anymore“, its that the consistency isn’t there anymore.
When you- as a parent- believe your child is finally doing okay on treatment, you stop watching him like a hawk and carefully monitoring his homework and how his morning get-dressed-for-school-eat-breakfast-leave-on-time routine is progressing.
Am I right?
You cannot slack off on this focus and consistency! Without a holistic treatment covering all aspects of a child’s life and personality- the medication will not make any kind of difference. You need to make sure he eats properly. You need to make sure his teachers know he has a diagnosis and a treatment plan and how they can work with you. You need to supplement a dreadful appetite with vitamins. You need to set up schedules and calendars to aid your child’s time management. You can’t ease up when things are going well- this is exactly when your added focus will REALLY start making a difference because the child is receptive to learning!
Yes, its exhausting. Yes, it goes on for years. Yes, you can treat your child without medication. But don’t blame the medication for all the issues. And please, for your and your child’s sake, please don’t watch him waiting for negative side effects and behaviours to manifest. See the good as well. Your child will gauge his reaction to his treatment and doctors based on how you treat them. If you are negative about meds and specialists, how can you expect your child to be otherwise?
Disclaimer: I need to stress that I am not a doctor, therapist, counsellor or a professional anything for that matter, so my ass-vice and opinions are all out of my own, uneducated, done-lots-of-reading-lived-with-it head!

Old Notebook Entries…

Posted on by

These scribbles are from 2006/ 2007 I think… I may even have blogged them before but when I found an old notebook that used to live in my handbag I was surprised by some of the scribbles I found in it. I think I’m going to be posting snippets from the book for a while.

=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=

Had a little chat with Damien about women and their over-reactions. The chat sprang from a radio snap survey about Valentines gifts and what’s appropriate… Forewarned is fore-armed I reckon!

=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=