Thursday, September 30, 2010

Free Diapers!!

Well, not for me. But maybe for you!

I learned that in some states if you have a child over 3 that has a medical reason for delayed potty training, it becomes classified as "incontinence", which then makes diapers a medical supply! My insurance doesn't cover it apparently. It's not in our "contract". But for others out there it might be something to look in to. Pass it on!

I started Alasdair on laxative last night. I'm hoping to get him back to a more regular bm schedule. Michaela continues to have tummy aches that are relieved by using the bathroom. I can't seem to get a laxative into her system so that it doesn't affect school or soccer. I'd hate for her to have it kick in on the field or in class or something. So she's still doing the miralax (or the Costco version of it), and i'm trying to increase that to see if it will help in the meantime.

I also ate the entire bag of Alasdair's bribe candy. I mean, you can NOT leave a bag, either open or unopen, in my house. I will find it and I will consume it. I'll have to get him his own bag of something less appealing to me and just keep the candy corns and candy corn pumpkins for myself!

mmmm, Halloweenie goodness.....

Monday, September 27, 2010

Learning Curve

Today my little ones had soccer practice. Afterwards Michaela tells me she thinks she's carsick, after a 10 minute car ride, that her tummy hurts. We get home and I slam out some dinner. She cleans her plate and then tells me that her tummy still hurts. She thinks it's because she ate dinner and then went up and down the stairs two times.

Michaela, that much exercise isn't going to make your tummy hurt.

Oh.

You probably need to poop.

Oh.

{brief interlude while she uses the facilities}

Mom! I pooped! A lot!

Does your tummy feel better?

YES!!!

See, when your tummy hurts, try to poop. You'll feel better, I promise!

Okay!

This is a conversation we have at least once a week, if not more. She's 8 1/2. You'd think that at some point she would realize that whatever "that feeling" is for her, it means she has to use the bathroom. But nope. I feel like somewhere along the way we forgot to let her touch the hot stove so she'd learn that hot = ouch.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Potty Training: The Final Frontier

For some reason I feel like potty training will be the last big hurdle in our adventures with Hirschsprung's. Although in my head I know differently. I have to. I'm a mom of an HD kid. For the rest of his life we'll be watching for signs of constipation, diarrhea, infection, malnutrition. It won't ever end. But I see that as a daily maintenance sort of thing. Potty Training. That's a huge deal! Not only for "normal" kids, but especially for HD kids. I just hope my kid can physically do it! I know he's ready to learn. But how frustrating is it going to be when we start worrying about having a bm in the potty and he just might not be able to? Based on our first feeble attempts, I'm not so sure we're going to have an easy road of it.

I bought a bag of candy corn pumpkins. You know, for bribery. We brought the potty chair downstairs near the toys and the TV. We're all set! He's 3 months past his 3rd birthday and now in preschool. And he's interested. He knows when he's peeing in his diaper. I've seen him hold it until the moment he gets into the bathtub, picks up the rinsing cup, points right in there and lets it go! yeah, he's ready.

The first couple of times were a huge success! He sat on the potty = 1 pumpkin. IF he pees on the potty = 2 pumpkins. If he POOPS on the potty = anything he wants, including a pony or a lifesize robot.

He actually got rewarded twice the first day for pooping on the potty with handful of pumpkins each time. But then i realized that he's not actually just having a bm. The stuff is literally just oozing out of him. I mean, I rewarded it anyway, but this is not good. It was very thin ribbons of poop too. I don't think that's normal. I've seen the size of the poops from his sisters and I know what these kids are capable of! And it's near imossible to see that from a diaper. But in the potty I could tell, and it makes me nervous.

For the past couple of weeks he has been having 6 - 8 dirty diapers a day, none of which are of any significant size. They stink to high hell, but they are probably just the results of the constant oozing. And then maybe once a day he'll empty out his entire body into one poor unsuspecting diaper. Good LORD.

When he gets back from his dad's this weekend, i'm going to put him back onto the dreaded laxative, stock up on Desitin and more vasaline in case we have to bust out the Ilex for a weepy rash, and see how that goes. If in a couple of weeks things aren't getting better, we may have to go in to see our surgeon. I'm concerned that he might have a stricture or something physical going on that's now allowing the stool to move through his colon and keep a normal shape/size.

Also, Michaela has been on a bowel clean out program since late July, meaning we put her on a laxative and double dose of miralax for 1 solid week (her bum was so red I actually had to use the diaper cream on HER!). Then after that week we have her on daily miralax. Things were going great until last week. Her tummy started hurting a lot, and i think she might be getting plugged up again. I really need to find a time we can get her back on a laxative for a few days as well, but between soccer and school, and knowing that the laxatives don't actually kick in for her until about 2 days in, I can't find a time to do it without putting her in danger of having an issue in the middle of class or at the soccer field.

The things we do for poop in this house! Geesh!