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To whom it may concern, my name is Kiaph Kiaph, and I am a student at the University of Kiaph at Kiaph and I would like to appeal the recent lost of my financial aid. In this appeal, I will attempt to justify my decision, withdrawing from all classes, that resulted in the loss of financial aid. As well as provide the reader with solid evidence that I am capable of meeting the standards for satisfactory academic progress. I would also like to thank you for taking the time to read and consider my appeal, please hang with me as I give a quick synopsis of my academic dilemma over the last year.







Before I get started, there is a little bit of background information that I would like to share. Just like other students when I started college as a freshman I never imagined losing my scholarship. This false sense of security arose because most of my life everything was smooth as it could be, I never had to study, do homework, or get up and go to class. I was naturally intuitive, everything made sense, and I never felt rushed to do anything.



When I was in junior-high my mother would come home after parent to teacher conferences completely stressed out. Unsure what to do because teachers would inform my mom of my disruptive behavior and that I was yet to turn in a single sheet of homework. To her defense, no matter what punishment she dished out, the cycle would never end. I played football till late in the afternoon, so very rarely would I get home in time for her to “force” me to do it, and the few times she tried, if I didn't forget my books, I would convince her that I was going to do it later. This continued into high-school where teachers just passed the news on to the next teacher, and before long it wasn't brought up anymore. Teacher's suggested that I could have ADHD, but I manage to succeed, so my parents never questioned it.



The trend continued, and soon I found myself close to flunking a course for the first time in my life. I will admit, there has been a couple cases where I deserved to fail, but teachers helped me out. I am thankful for those teachers, because of them, I manage to hang on long enough to get the treatment I needed finally to succeed.



In the midst of my struggle with school, I had some other life issues, and a close friend of mine recommend Mickey Shell (MS) right outside of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Mickey encouraged me in my struggles, and beyond that, he helped me identify my struggle with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AHDH). In the following sessions, Mickey always brought it up, until I finally decided that if I did have ADHD then it was not just an excuse, but a condition, and I needed to get treatment if I wanted to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor.



My friends from high school agreed with Mickey about the ADHD, and encouraged me to ask my doctor about it. The hardest part was telling my mother the reason I was going to the doctor, I was scared I was wrong, and that maybe it was just a lack of effort. There was no way to get around telling my mother, being in school, I had no money to my name, so to go home and see the doctor, I would need to ask for gas money.





I am not sure how I passed Organic chemistry, or any of the classes I took my third semester, at this point my class attendance hit an all time low. Going to class for me was something I wanted to enjoy, but instead it made me feel incapable. I would go from taking notes, to sketching the structure of a molecule, to drawing in the corner of my paper, then erasing the area because it bothered me to have drawings on my paper. Then back to trying to catch up in notes, and just like that the class would be over, and my paper would just be full of drawings. The harder I tried to stop losing focus, the more aware I became of how well others around me listened and took notes, and the more frustrated I got at myself. Eventually, I was only showing up for quizzes, reviews, and test.




At the end of the semester, I lost financial aid for the first time. At this point I knew I had to seek treatment, I told my doctor, I wrote an appeal, I didn't have any doctor notes then, so the board denied my appeal, and rightfully so. I got a job at Fred 's, and manage to avoid “facing” the isles for my first month and life was good, twenty-plus hours a week, and only eleven hours of classes, I was going to make it. I continued my tradition of skipping class, spending the majority of the time studying on my own.





However Concerta wasn't enough, I would force myself to do homework and study, but an hour worth of material quickly took up three. Even while studying I would lose focus, just as much as I would in class, the only difference was the Concerta. Instead of just giving up after daydreaming for 5-10 minutes, I would just flip back a couple pages and start reading where I lost focus. This brought up the question of reading comprehension, but that was unlikely, and was only limited to reading, many times while doing calculus homework half my page would be random sketches. Eventually, I was asked to “face” the isles at Fred's, I had never been good at organization, and Concerta only made it worse, now I would miss things and spend time looking for things I missed, only to miss it again. This didn't go over very well with the store manager. The third time I “faced” the isles my hours were cut to three hours a week, and soon after to zero.



I stopped taking Concerta, I was not aware at the time it was the reason I was determined to spend hours on end studying even if during those hours I only read 1 chapter. I was not doing too well in school, and after losing my job while taking Concerta daily it seemed clear to me I didn't have ADHD, because if I did then Concerta would have helped.



Laura Hughes needed a tutor for the athletic building, and there was nothing I liked more than helping others, I can't explain how it worked, but while I was tutoring nothing could distract me. However, Morris Bramlett was quick to warn her about my absences, and when she asked me about it, I explained my reasoning, and what was suppose to be a 5 minute answer, became a 30 minute discussion. She encouraged me to continue looking for support, and suggested some places.





That next month I manage to get an appointment scheduled at Southeast Arkansas Behavioral Healthcare(SEAB), in Pinebluff. MD Stephen Broughton just like MD Hughes Nutt was very much against prescribing narcotics to adults. At this point, I sounded like a drug addict trying to quench an addiction. I very briefly explained my situation, and pretty much begged him to let me try Adderall. After considering a couple alternatives, he went ahead and prescribed 20MG XR. I didn't do my research in advance, and found out quickly after that I would need a much higher dosage. I found out the copay was $45, but Tricare was going to pay it, so I paid off the first copay and didn't think about it again.





Prior to knowing that Tricare would cover the copay, and after doing some research of my own, I was offended that MD Broughton would prescribe such a low dosage, and I didn't want to have to pay $50 to see him again, so I went to see MD Nutt. I told him the pills were not lasting very long for me, and besides the sudden crash I felt when they wore off, there was no real benefit to taking them. MD Nutt would not prescribe a higher dosage of Adderal, so I tried Ritalin twice daily.



I received a call from SEAB, letting me know my appointment got moved back a couple days, giving me time to try the Ritalin (only 2 week supply). I brought my father's insurance information for Tricare and went to see a doctor. It was a rough conversation, I told him how I felt, about the fact that he knowingly gave me a dosage that was not going to work. I told him if my doctor would prescribe Adderall I wouldn't even be here, to be honest, I was very rude and upfront. He told me if all I was after is a certain pill, that I could go find another doctor to prescribe it.



Somewhere in the next few minutes, I opened up, and the true fear of failure, and all the anxiety that had built up in my life because of ADHD became real. I don't remember what all I said, but it was clear that I didn't care what treatment option he gave me, narcotic or not, I already was failing one course and that I just needed help before next semester. MD Broughton was waiting for that, waiting to see if I wanted a particular drug, or if I needed help. From that moment on everything fell into place, and another MD in the building, more knowledgeable on treating ADHD helped set up a plan to increase the dosage slowly until I could focus for longer than 15 minutes. However, I found out a few weeks later it was 45$ co-pay for both the doctor and the psychologist, and that Tricare was not covering it.



There was no way I could afford the 90$ copay for each visit, and with only 2 visits, I owed 180$, and had no way to pay for it. I wasn't sure what to do, I had already signed up for this spring semester feeling confident that with the plan we set up everything would work out.



Instead, I spent this semester forgetting to call the insurance company, and trying to contact my father so that I could get insurance again. When I finally got it all setup I forgot my wallet, and had to drive back to Pinebluff again the next day.



A little over a month into the semester the insurance issue was resolved, and I set up an appoint at SEAB, to only find out my account was closed, and to open an account it would take an appointment. From there, they would have to schedule an appointment to see a psychologist, who would then set me up an appointment with a doctor. Besides not having 200$ in my pocket, I could not wait that long to see a doctor.




In a last ditch attempt to salvage the situation I switched doctors,
my primary physician is now MD Walley. We picked up where the plan left off, with a little over a month before drop date. Thankfully the next dosage up was what I was after, a small enough dosage that no one knows I am taking it, but strong enough to help me focus when I put my mind to it.



It took about a month to get use to taking them on a daily basis, and I started going to class on a regular basis, but a week later was drop date and I didn't even know it. I found out when Dr. Huang asked me why I was going to the lab, and then pointed out my class grade, and that I only had a few more days to drop.



I told him I was going to try to make it, and I would fail his class with a 49.4 if that the highest grade that I could score and I meant it. Though there was one other class that needed my attention desperately, I had a test in zoology that Monday, but, after asking for an extra day Dr. Manning gave me till Wednesday morning. I love zoology, I love understanding why we class animals into certain phylum, but there was not enough time in the world to study. I tried, I studied over the weekend, Monday, Tuesday, and even Wednesday morning, but there was no way to swallow the elephant in under 48 hours. I never realized how much time class and lab hours took up till after trying to teach myself nearly one hundred pages of zoology and making sure to go to each class.



That Wednesday morning, I went to Dr. Bramlett and asked for his opinion, I knew I most likely would fail two classes, but I was willing to fail 1 class if it meant showing Dr. Huang I was capable, but Dr. Bramlett pointed out that would have been academic suicide. His advice was to talk to financial aid to see how many classes I could drop. However, dropping classes would result in loss of financial aid, and keeping zoology or chemistry would also forfeit my financial aid. The best choice to make was to withdraw from all classes, and write this appeal.





I know that the ladies and gentlemen reading this, owe me nothing and that everybody has his or her own story to tell, but now that you know the road I traveled, will you give me a chance to walk a little further?



My name is Kiaph Kiaph, and I have a dream to become a doctor someday. I will do my part in taking care my mental health, so that I will be able to attentively sit threw a lecture, actively read ahead and complete homework, score well on quiz and test, and tell every teacher I see before noon: “Goodmorning,” with a smile that I hope will brighten up their day. I finally have my life in order, and there is nothing more I could ask for than to be able to attend UAM this coming fall.



Thank you for reading,

Kiaph kiaph

Due to the inability to obtain propper medication, I did not meet satisfactory academic progress standards. My father's Health Insurer denied the copays billed by South East Arkansas Behavioral center. After contacting my father I was able to get the issue resolved, but did not have the funds required to re-open my account. In the need of medication I chose to switch to a new physician. [Black box of ink from messing up] Two months into the semester I resumed treatment. Even with perfect scores I would not be able to meet sastisfactory academic progress standards. After Consulting with Dr. Bramlett, I determined the only reasonable course of action I had finicially and academically would be to drop my classes and write an appeal.

I am currently recieving treatment for ADHD, and will be continuing treatment during the comming up semester. With treatment I will be able to not only meet standards, but press myself to achieve academic honors. In the future I will use UAM's consouling services to help my doctor know the make the propper adjustments in the medication, to help me stay focused and sucessful.
Thank you for reading, Kiaph Kiaph.