Brendan's battle with the bathroom! & The Bright Side!

As Brendan is getting older he is having some more issues with using the Bathroom. He simply does not want to poop. He refuses, he holds it, he has accidents. It is beyond frustrating because he is almost 12 and has been toilet trained since age 4. This has been going on since last January and we are at our wits end. We have tried everything under the sun to get passed this ordeal. We have punished, we have ignored, we have rewarded. We have tried natural laxatives. I have questioned puberty causing it and come up with every excuse in the book. Nothing has worked. Nothing makes sense.

However, we finally realized it is more of a control issue. I have taken him to a GI Dr. and a nutritionist trying to figure some things out but in the end we realize he wants to have control over something. Kind of like people with eating disorders. It isn't about the food, it is about control. Brendan needs assistance with everything and he can't do what he wants all the time because of all the assistance he requires. He also can't see his father as much this year due to starting middle school. He starts school an hour earlier which makes commuting to pick him up and bring him to school extremely early in the morning out of the question. His PASS worker of the past few years also stopped working with him due to furthering her career. He also had to attend a different summer school due to his age and found out he wouldn't see his father as much once he started middle school. I think there was just too much out of his control and he couldn't handle it. He has a hard time expressing his feelings which we are working on and this is what he chose to rebel against. Odd? Yes it is but we are trying our best to deal with the situation.
Recently we have made a breakthrough but it isn't over yet. He is beginning to use the bathroom and is having less accidents. He does get punished if he has an accident such as losing all electronics and he isn't allowed to go out and about with his new PASS worker. As soon as he chooses to use the bathroom he gets everything back and he is one happy boy. Slowly but surely we will overcome this bump in the road.

Even with all of this going on Brendan is STILL progressing. He still amazes me all the time. I still can't believe how proud I can feel of this child. The tiniest milestones are still appreciated beyond belief. His vocabulary is constantly improving. On a daily basis I can't believe what comes out of his mouth. He cracks me up. While his mobility is getting more difficult for him due to growth spurts and left hip issues (that is another whole blog entry) he is still impressing us. Last month we decided to see if he could get into his wheelchair on his own....from the couch! He crawled off the couch and across the room (army style) and climbed into his wheelchair completely on his own. We only gave him verbal cues. Who even knew he could do this? He loves our excitement and I am pretty sure he impresses himself. He loves knowing he can do things all on his own.

Yesterday was another WOW moment. I was changing his little brothers diaper and Brendan called me to use the bathroom (two WOW's in one!) and I could tell he really had to go so I told him to wheel into his bathroom and unbuckle and I would be there as soon as I changed Drew's diaper. Well after a quick change I ran to his bathroom and found him STANDING at his toilet holding onto his handicap bars!!!! He decided to get out of his wheelchair and just stand up and wait for me. He has never done this before and he had a huge smile on his face. AMAZING!!!! Now being 8 months pregnant this is totally awesome for me. No lifting required. Little achievements like this bring tears to my eyes.

So he can now self transfer into and out of his walker, get into his wheelchair on his own from the floor with verbal cues, and stand up at his toilet with zero help. He can also get into his wheelchair from a standing position with very little help. Now Dr. Park says he won't be able to walk on his own even after SDR but I seriously question that. He can't possibly know what my son is capable of doing from a 30 minute evaluation. If Brendan puts his mind to it he can do anything!