It's a Stinky Situation. Literally.

We drove up to A.I. DuPont Children's Hospital in Wilmington, Del. on Tuesday, which was the third time since May. Typically, we only go for check-ups with the spina bifida clinic every six months, but we are in the midst of trying to figure out how to fix a stinky situation.

Adria will be five years old in a month (hmm, need to work on party planning). She is still in diapers. This is not because we are lazy, but because her nerves in the spinal cord that control bowel and bladder function never formed properly. Therefore, she has very little control over going potty.

Maybe you don't care to read about poopy diapers, but this is our greatest struggle with her right now. We have made it through many hurdles - head surgery, learning to crawl, taking steps with a walker, walking unassisted, and starting a daily catheterization program. This is our next hurdle - keeping her diaper clean. As she is now preparing to attend pre-school everyday, we want to do all we can to avoid her having stinky diapers around other children.

The doctors said we still have some time. It's usually around age 7 when other children notice and tease about the smell. She is such a sweetie with a gentle spirit, I can't stand the thought of her being teased for that.

So, I have been trying to keep a Bowel Log. It's really not so fun to document what she eats, drinks, when her meds are given, and of course when she poops. How much is it? How soft is it? What's the consistency? Definitely not a favorite past-time.

We talked about our progress and what we tracked with the doctor. There is no quick and easy way to make a spina bifida child's bowel empty properly. Constipation is an on-going challenge with these children. It takes time to figure out what works best for each family, but it usually involves a three-step process.

1. Soften - a medicine to help soften the stool. Adria takes about a teaspoon of powder Miralax every morning with her milk.
2. Stimulate - an oral medicine to help get the bowel moving. Adria has a 1/2 teaspoon of Senna Syrup at lunch time.
3. Evacuate - something to help get the stool out. This is the unpleasant part...I insert gel into her rectum every night. It's called Mini Enemeez, which is like an enema, and then she sits on the potty for about 20 minutes.

This is the only time a day when she sits on the potty. She actually enjoys "potty time" because she gets to play games on mommy's iPhone.

We think that we are getting closer to a consistent program, but the same "formula" does not work exactly every day since her diet can have a huge impact on everything. We all know how foods can affect us differently.

In addition to advising us on the topic, a couple other good things came out of Tuesday's appointments. They gave us a prescription for diapers! I still need to get them ordered, but now that regular diapers are getting too small, we can get these. I hope our insurance covers this, that would be great.

The doctor also vowed to haggle with our insurance over the mini Enemeez. For some bizarre reason, they are considered an over-the-counter medication, and our insurance will not cover them at all. I hope she can make some headway, so we can have that $74/month back.

For now, we are going to stick with the three-step plan above and hope to regulate this stinky situation as much as we can and prevent embarrassment for Adria. I hope you don't mind this topic too much, but it's been helpful for us to read other blogs about this to help determine our options for no more stinky diapers!

Below are some photos taken of Adria at A.I. DuPont Hospital on Tuesday. Look at the huge addition they are working on right now, to be open sometime next year!