Tristan's hearing aid has been found! I can't tell you how relieved I am to be able to type that out.
After the fiasco with the stash in the car, I tore apart Tristan's room. He had things stashed all over the place. I cleaned his toy box out. I hit his closet where I found dirty laundry and a huge stash of soiled pull ups.
Tristan still wets the bed. We don't make a big deal out of it since he's on medication that really knocks him out at night. We put him in Good Nites to make him as comfortable as we can while he's sleeping. It also cuts down on laundry and reduces damage to his bed. We've tried to just let him go to bed without the Good Nites, but he sleeps soundly til the morning regardless. Being wet just doesn't wake him up.
Anyways, I pulled everything away from the wall and went through every square inch of his room. I finally found the hearing aid stashed behind his toy box. I was so relieved to find it. We checked it out to make sure it was still working, and it was just fine.
I made him clean out all those disgusting Good Nites and explained for the umpteenth time how gross it was and that I wasn't mad that he wet the bed, he just needed to take care of it. I really wonder what's going on with this hoarding-like behavior.
Showing posts with label hearing aid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hearing aid. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Foot Massage and a Hidden Cache
The past two or three days have been relatively uneventful tantrum-wise, thankfully.
We saw Dr. M on Thursday and I expressed my desire to leave Tristan's medication alone for the time being. I told him also that if we decided that the medication does not work, then instead of adding anything, I'd like to try something new. Dr. M completely agreed with me and was supportive of my plan.
We saw the play therapist, C., on Friday, as usual. She wanted us to have a mother/son session, and since my husband was there to watch the girls, I agreed.
She started us off by having me give Tristan a foot massage. He seemed to enjoy it but wouldn't look me in the eye while I was rubbing his feet. After the foot massage, she wanted me to cradle him and just hold him. He was having none of that. I guess he wasn't into being treated like a baby. I know I personally feel very vulnerable in the prone position like that.
We played with the doll house for the remainder of the session. Tristan made up a very elaborate story about our family running up the hill away from a terrible storm. In the story, Tristan flew himself, Daisy (our dog), his middle sister, S., and his goldfish in a helicopter up the hill. My husband, myself and the baby, W., rode in a police car (which was supposed to be a regular car in the story,) up the hill. He had to fix the car and the house in the story. C. pronounced that Tristan is working on "fixing things" internally.
This morning, Tristan woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He argued almost constantly and about everything until finally, I told him I wasn't taking him to his baseball game in such a mood. I told him that he needed to stop arguing and back-talking and I would reconsider. He started screaming and thrashing around, no matter how much I tried talking to him and explaining what he needed to do to be allowed to go. That was a complete failure. He ended up throwing an enormous tantrum. He went to his room for a while to calm down and came down in a better mood.
In related news, we discovered he's been hiding things in the car. His school folders have been missing. I couldn't figure out where they were since they'd disappeared somewhere between our house and school. I noticed a wrapper sticking out from in front of his seat in the back of our SUV. Upon further investigation, I found all the missing homework, folders and all kinds of food and snack wrappers. I was livid.
Not only had he hidden the homework, all that food in the car attracted bugs and other disgusting things to our car. I try so hard to keep our SUV clean, since, let's face it, roaches thrive in Hawaii. Just about everyone has them, whether they are aware of them or not. We've had the Honda for two and a half years and had no bug problems until now. Our neighbor told us they need to bomb their cars at least a couple times a year and everyone in Hawaii has that problem. I'm not convinced, but it did make me feel better.
We bombed the car last night per our neighbor's advice and showed Tristan the evidence this morning. I wanted him to understand why we don't have food in the car. He was horrified (even though the problem really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.)
On second thought, since he has those bug hallucinations maybe I shouldn't have shown him that...
Still no sign of the hearing aid. I think on Monday, I'm throwing in the towel and calling the audiologist. We may have to eat the $2000, but Tristan not being able to hear is driving me (and him) nuts. He admits he hid it, but says he forgot where he put it.
We saw Dr. M on Thursday and I expressed my desire to leave Tristan's medication alone for the time being. I told him also that if we decided that the medication does not work, then instead of adding anything, I'd like to try something new. Dr. M completely agreed with me and was supportive of my plan.
We saw the play therapist, C., on Friday, as usual. She wanted us to have a mother/son session, and since my husband was there to watch the girls, I agreed.
She started us off by having me give Tristan a foot massage. He seemed to enjoy it but wouldn't look me in the eye while I was rubbing his feet. After the foot massage, she wanted me to cradle him and just hold him. He was having none of that. I guess he wasn't into being treated like a baby. I know I personally feel very vulnerable in the prone position like that.
We played with the doll house for the remainder of the session. Tristan made up a very elaborate story about our family running up the hill away from a terrible storm. In the story, Tristan flew himself, Daisy (our dog), his middle sister, S., and his goldfish in a helicopter up the hill. My husband, myself and the baby, W., rode in a police car (which was supposed to be a regular car in the story,) up the hill. He had to fix the car and the house in the story. C. pronounced that Tristan is working on "fixing things" internally.
This morning, Tristan woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He argued almost constantly and about everything until finally, I told him I wasn't taking him to his baseball game in such a mood. I told him that he needed to stop arguing and back-talking and I would reconsider. He started screaming and thrashing around, no matter how much I tried talking to him and explaining what he needed to do to be allowed to go. That was a complete failure. He ended up throwing an enormous tantrum. He went to his room for a while to calm down and came down in a better mood.
In related news, we discovered he's been hiding things in the car. His school folders have been missing. I couldn't figure out where they were since they'd disappeared somewhere between our house and school. I noticed a wrapper sticking out from in front of his seat in the back of our SUV. Upon further investigation, I found all the missing homework, folders and all kinds of food and snack wrappers. I was livid.
Not only had he hidden the homework, all that food in the car attracted bugs and other disgusting things to our car. I try so hard to keep our SUV clean, since, let's face it, roaches thrive in Hawaii. Just about everyone has them, whether they are aware of them or not. We've had the Honda for two and a half years and had no bug problems until now. Our neighbor told us they need to bomb their cars at least a couple times a year and everyone in Hawaii has that problem. I'm not convinced, but it did make me feel better.
We bombed the car last night per our neighbor's advice and showed Tristan the evidence this morning. I wanted him to understand why we don't have food in the car. He was horrified (even though the problem really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.)
On second thought, since he has those bug hallucinations maybe I shouldn't have shown him that...
Still no sign of the hearing aid. I think on Monday, I'm throwing in the towel and calling the audiologist. We may have to eat the $2000, but Tristan not being able to hear is driving me (and him) nuts. He admits he hid it, but says he forgot where he put it.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tristan and the Case of the Missing Hearing Aid
I'm feeling optimistic. Tristan had a great day!
He came home, had snack and did his homework with little trouble. He was able to play outside for a little while before baseball practice. He got in trouble for throwing rocks (which he knows is strictly forbidden,) and sat in time out like he was supposed to- no tantrums!
Still no sign of his hearing aid. Last Thursday, he did not pick up his hearing aid when I asked him to, and his baby sister picked up the hearing aid off the floor and sucked on it. The battery compartment opened and she swallowed the battery. Needless to say, we had an hasty run to the emergency room where a quick x-ray revealed the battery floating in her tummy. We were all terrified and I think it really impacted Tristan more than I initially thought.
His teacher called me yesterday and told me that he'd been talking about it at school. We talked for a minute and it occurred to me that maybe he had hidden the hearing aid. I've scoured his room to no avail. I asked him about it and he admitted that maybe he had hidden it, but couldn't recall where he put it.
I've been telling him that we're not angry at him and it wasn't his fault that the baby ate the battery, but that it's important not to leave his hearing aid lying around. It's hard to say exactly what's going on in his head, but I'm hoping he doesn't feel guilty.
I'm just hoping that hearing aid shows up soon, otherwise we're going to have to shell out a couple thousand dollars for a new one.
He came home, had snack and did his homework with little trouble. He was able to play outside for a little while before baseball practice. He got in trouble for throwing rocks (which he knows is strictly forbidden,) and sat in time out like he was supposed to- no tantrums!
Still no sign of his hearing aid. Last Thursday, he did not pick up his hearing aid when I asked him to, and his baby sister picked up the hearing aid off the floor and sucked on it. The battery compartment opened and she swallowed the battery. Needless to say, we had an hasty run to the emergency room where a quick x-ray revealed the battery floating in her tummy. We were all terrified and I think it really impacted Tristan more than I initially thought.
His teacher called me yesterday and told me that he'd been talking about it at school. We talked for a minute and it occurred to me that maybe he had hidden the hearing aid. I've scoured his room to no avail. I asked him about it and he admitted that maybe he had hidden it, but couldn't recall where he put it.
I've been telling him that we're not angry at him and it wasn't his fault that the baby ate the battery, but that it's important not to leave his hearing aid lying around. It's hard to say exactly what's going on in his head, but I'm hoping he doesn't feel guilty.
I'm just hoping that hearing aid shows up soon, otherwise we're going to have to shell out a couple thousand dollars for a new one.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Very Touching Book and The Token System
The play therapist gave me The Very Touching Book to read to Tristan. It's a book about the three kinds of touching; good, bad and secret. She felt it would help him understand the right way to touch his sisters and I.
Tristan tends to be aggressive with his touching. He has an almost constant need to rub and touch people and it can border on the inappropriate. His psychiatrist feels it's a symptom of his bipolar and that seems to fit.
Anyways, reading that book this evening made me feel like a twelve year old boy. I really tried, but I couldn't help but laugh. The drawings are anatomically correct and seem a bit graphic. The preface at the beginning of the book explained that it's important to empower children with information about their own bodies, which I completely agree with. It's just difficult to encourage the kids to say "penis" over and over again until there were no more "purple faces." Of course, the only purple face was mine.
C., his play therapist, wants us to start him on the token reward system again. Basically, for every set period of time he stays on task and follows the rules, he gets a token (or sticker, etc.) He can use those tokens to "purchase" video game time, trampoline time, story time, or special snacks or time with one parent, etc. It really works well for Tristan, and I do think that most kids do well with such tangible, positive reinforcement. We have a stash of poker chips that we use for this purpose. Tristan likes to hold his tokens in his pocket and to count them. We're going to start the system again as soon as we have a down day.
Tristan lost his hearing aid. He's severely hearing impaired on the left side and he really needs that hearing aid to get the most out of his classes. I'm really hoping it turns up soon, because those bad boys are expensive!
Tristan tends to be aggressive with his touching. He has an almost constant need to rub and touch people and it can border on the inappropriate. His psychiatrist feels it's a symptom of his bipolar and that seems to fit.
Anyways, reading that book this evening made me feel like a twelve year old boy. I really tried, but I couldn't help but laugh. The drawings are anatomically correct and seem a bit graphic. The preface at the beginning of the book explained that it's important to empower children with information about their own bodies, which I completely agree with. It's just difficult to encourage the kids to say "penis" over and over again until there were no more "purple faces." Of course, the only purple face was mine.
C., his play therapist, wants us to start him on the token reward system again. Basically, for every set period of time he stays on task and follows the rules, he gets a token (or sticker, etc.) He can use those tokens to "purchase" video game time, trampoline time, story time, or special snacks or time with one parent, etc. It really works well for Tristan, and I do think that most kids do well with such tangible, positive reinforcement. We have a stash of poker chips that we use for this purpose. Tristan likes to hold his tokens in his pocket and to count them. We're going to start the system again as soon as we have a down day.
Tristan lost his hearing aid. He's severely hearing impaired on the left side and he really needs that hearing aid to get the most out of his classes. I'm really hoping it turns up soon, because those bad boys are expensive!
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