Arriving at adhd in a leftfield way.

[Flossish]

My 10 year old son has had a difficult year, he's always had continence issues and has been diagnosed with neurogenic bladder. He has to self catheterise and has a badly damaged bladder.

Looking into the causes of this I've hit upon adhd. I've long felt that there is something not completely 'right' with ds, although I'm afraid the cliché image of the condition has prevented me from me from properly contemplating it.

Having looked into it more though, so much of it makes sense. He struggles with writing and reading, is behind at school, doesn't ever change behaviour when it has negative consequences, can't sit up the table, talks non stop, I could go on.

Before the holidays I spoke to the school, he has just completed year 5. His teacher admitted she knew nothing about the condition, but would d/w the senco (deputy head). Had to chase this over about 3 weeks. Upshot is that school say they aren't concerned but that it is recognised 'throughout the school that he struggles to focus'. They also found he didn't follow instructions or rules on the school camp and his behaviour during the trip was a shock to them.

I have been to our gp, having had a phone consultation, she had also looked at the causes of ds bladder condition and agreed with me that this was the most plausible cause. She has referred us for peads assessment.

Our urology consultant has also referred us to the neuro team as there is usually a neuro cause to ds problem which all tests have so far come back clear. Obviously this neuro cause is possibly /probably adhd.

I've more or less decided to pursue things with the school a bit more. Is it reasonable to try and push for them to take things more seriously now or should I hold my horses and wait for more formal diagnoses?

On the one hand I'm basically diagnosing by Google and we have nothing solid, and yet on the other it's year six in September and he is struggling to keep up with his work. His teacher this coming year is more experienced, but the school are against labelling children as rule, which I do appreciate but not if children aren't being helped to achieve their potential. I think his sats could be hugely stressful for him (he found tests in year 3 very worrying, for which he had no pressure on him from home).

We are trying to go about it a way that ds is largely unaware, he's got a lot to deal with as it is with his bladder, but then again the way in which we need to deal with his bladder recovery may be altered by an adhd diagnosis.

I don't really know why I'm writing this post, it does feel therapeutic to write it all down! Any advice or thoughts are though very much appreciated!