The Reality News:I continue to be truly amazed at the actual quantity of liquid our bladders are able to expel when compared the miniscule amount they are able to hold. As a result, I have become one with my washing machine.
The Good News
Physically the young man is tip-top condition. No infection, no injury, no malformations (we drive the distance to his regular medical center so previous records and ultrasounds are on file). Various strategies have not worked it has been years. As a result, the Doctor prescribed a bed wetting alarm pad for us to try.
The Annoying News
It will take Health insurance about three weeks to approve it once they receive the letter of medical necessity from the medical supply company.
The Best News:
Yesterday, after leaving the doctor's appontment, I called Behavioral Health to set up an intake appointment for therapy for CAL. He really needs someone to help him through all the stuff he has going on. Miracle of miracles - there was a cancellation - and they could see us TODAY. Can you freakin' believe it????????????? I was expecting the usual "We can see you in six weeks..." YIPPPPPEEEEEEEEEE. Oh, and it gets better: He's a GUY (male therapists are sadly under-represented in our part of New England.) He was perplexed about which Doctor sent us since it wasn't in the file. I said no one sent us. I just called for an intake and the receptionist said there was a cancellation for today and I just took the appointment. Hmmmmm. He thought it was interesting we randomly landed with him because, guess what happens to be one of his his special areas: UMHmmm- OH Yeah!!!!!! ENEURISIS!!!!!!.
The Strange News:
Even though I should be all happy and exciting about the new bed wetting expert in our lives - I'm a little worried this will create a red-herring focus to Cal's therapy. Cal will be the first to tell the kind Doctor he really has other, if not bigger, fish to fry than wet sheets every night. He's had wet sheets every night for as long as he can remember. The therapist is all excited about bed wetting and I am thinking like - a wet bed is the least of this boys woes right now: how experienced are you with the trauma being taken away from home in your pajamas and placed in a jail cell??? the trauma of entering foster care? sexual abuse? neglect? probation?violence? truancy? over parentifiation? hunger? depression? Pick one..heck, pick two....HOLY CRAP.
PEEEEE ESSSS (get it???? Peeee S??? PS????)
Just as a general disclaimer and reminder it is just an audible alarm - not an electric shock torture device. The pad senses moisture and sounds an noisy alarm. The idea is simply to wake the peeing sleeper before they have emptied thier bladder, giving them a chance to stop the flow and get up and go....
Let us know how this works... I can't imagine having to stop mid pee-- get OUT of my warm bed.. and go to the bathroom..
ReplyDeletethough,sheesh.... it must be working for SOMEONE!
I wish good luck to him with his new therapist!
casey
Maybe the therapist being an expert in this will mean he gets the connection between those issues and the bed wetting. (one can hope!) Good luck with the pad alarm. I had an alarm for Robbie and it was not so cool for us. It wasn't a pad though. It clipped onto the underwear. It was loud, which I get as Rob is a heavy sleeper. However it so petrified him to awaken that way that his automatic response was to pee more. Then the alarm got so soaked that even when I took it off his underwear I couldn't get the thing to stop its klaxon sound. I was practically jumping on the thing trying to shut it up before the whole house was awake. LOL We went to plan B
ReplyDeleteOh how I will not miss the days when the bedrooms don't smell of pee. We invested in one of those super duper washers that even sanitizes stuff for you given that we had 3 mad pee-ers and a baby all at the same time! I love that thing so much no one else is allowed to touch it!
ReplyDeleteOur 10 year old has had ongoing problems and we tried that alarm but it was usually too late for him to stop. Then there were the times he ignored the alarm because he thought he should "try to hold it" (gotta love RAD and ODD) instead of getting up. What eventually worked is we set regular alarms to go off every 2 1/2 hours and he had to go to the bathroom each time even if he didn't think he needed to. After 2 weeks we were able to extend the time in-between to 3 hours, then 3 1/2 hrs, etc. until the problem (mostly) went away. He now gets up once during the night to go but otherwise is fine (unless of course he is in the middle of a major episode of defiance and anger--then he seems to pee just for spite!)
Hoping all works out with the alarm and therapist. Keeping my fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your encouragement!!!! He has had one "dry" night so far with one of us doing the wake up at 1:30 am and at 7 am.
ReplyDeleteOh, I hope things go well with this therapist. It looks promising from the outset and how the stars seem to have aligned to make it happen and with this person, so keeping fingers crossed.
ReplyDelete