Chapter 22 [January 22, 2002]
It was a soggy Monday afternoon, two days after the party and Jordan’s anxiety hadn’t decreased much. At school, she had told Alex about what had happened between she and Amber during the movie. As was often the case, Alex was both encouraging and dismissive.
The night had been perfect for her. In her element, she had partied hard: danced, talked, played, raced, chased, and without fear of her dad doing anything crazy under the influence.
Luckily, Amber’s little ‘shot over the bow’ had been the only eventful diaper-related moment of the evening for Jordan. Alex’s plan for dealing with Jordan’s bedwetting and diaper-needs was for her to get her diaper on in Jo’s bedroom and then to be one of the first in her sleeping bag in the Great Room where everyone was watching the movie and eventually going to sleep.
Alex told her to wear a pair of tight volleyball shorts over her diaper and then to wear a baggier set of normal pajama bottoms. “No one will notice it in the dark if we’re watching a movie,” she had said, “and if there’s lots of activity still going on, there’ll be plenty of noise to cover up the crinkle…”
As it turned out, the group had chosen to move on to another relatively new DVD release, “Shrek”, after “Harry Potter” had been completed. The gossip group in Alex’s room had fizzled about at that time and Jordan had made her way to the Great Room to get her sleeping bag ready and to grab her pajamas. She had found Alex’s mom barely staving off sleep in the master bedroom.
“Um…Mrs. Miller?…are you still awake?” Jordan had asked poking her head in the door.
“Oh Jordie. Yea honey come in; I was wondering if you had already taken care of yourself or something…” Jo had rubbed the sleep from her eyes and swung her feet over the side of her four-poster bed.
“…Um…wh…where…”
“Oh sweetie. It’s ok, you don’t have to be embarrassed. Let’s get you taken care of right here on the bed. But let’s make sure the door locked first!” The young motherly woman smiled.
“Oh…right…” Jordan had awkwardly turned and pushed the button in the door handle of the closed door before walking towards the Jo carrying her packet of pajamas and diaper.
“Have you had fun tonight dear?” Jo had asked, having noticed Jordan’s air of anxiety.
“Oh, yeah,” she had said smiling, “for sure. It’s been fun.” She decided not to tell her about the little even that had just taken place.
“Good to hear. Now,” lowering the volume of her voice, “where’s your diaper sweetie?”
“Oh um…It’s um…,” Jordan had fumbled with her packet of clothing, “right here.” The purple diaper had fallen on the floor between her bare feet and Jo reached down to pick it up and had set it on the bed.
“Ok let’s get you outa here quick before anyone notices you’re gone.” Jo had smiled as she slipped more quickly into the caretaker role that she had eventually discovered those days after Jordan had been in the hospital. She motioned for Jordan to turn around, “Let me get your zipper for you.”
Turning around, the tall brunette had felt the tiny zipper on her white party dress (the same she had worn for her own birthday party) slide to the bottom. She had slipped out of it, letting it fall to the floor before lying back on the bed in just her underwear set.
“Let’s get those off too sweetie.” Jo had said leaning forward over the girl and grabbing the rear portion of the waistband of her panties, pulled them down. Leaving her now almost completely exposed, she said, “There we are.”
Jo had grabbed the diaper and unwrapped it. “These sure are nice diapers Jordan, where does your mom get them anyway? I’ve never seen anything like it at Bob’s hospital.”
“…um…I think through the mail…” Jordan had replied, having felt awkward talking while the process was taking place.
Jo had just been trying to keep it light; but she had sensed Jordan’s discomfort and worked quickly, pulling up the purple crinkly diaper tightly between the tall girl’s splayed legs and then taping each of the four fasteners in place. After having given her a pat on her diapered tummy, Jo announced, “there you are, ready to go.”
Jo had helped Jordan into her volleyball compression shorts and then watched her pace a little in the room to test them out for sound. Once fully dressed in the rest of her pajamas, Jordan looked at herself in the mirror and then to Jo for approval.
“Jordie no one is gonna notice. I can’t even hear it in here where it’s quiet. You’re safe.”
And as far as she could tell, she was. The rest of the night had gone through without a hitch.
So on that soggy Monday afternoon, Jordan stood in the drizzle outside the front entrance of BCS. The busses had come and gone; most of the remaining students had been retrieved up by their parents. But the tall girl with the big secret, still dressed in her plaid school skirt and white blouse with scarf, waited for her mom.
The one detail Jo had forgotten on Saturday night (a detail which Jordan had intentionally attempted to help her forget) was applying the desitin before diapering Jordan. Sally had been religious about the diaper rash cream, especially after the girl’s infection. But during the two days she spent home with Jo, the consistency and thoroughness of the applications was not up to the same standard as it was with Jordan’s own mom.
This was not a surprise – it had been quite awkward for Jo to diaper, let alone apply such a product with her hand to such a private area of a teenage girl’s body! As a consequence, by Monday afternoon, Jordan’s rash had flared up to all new heights and was even blistering in a couple folds of skin. It didn’t take a lot of cajoling for Sally to convince the girl this time to go see Dr. Yepp; every step was causing her sharp pain.
Jordan was sure she could smell the thick layer of cream on her body again as she sat in the doctor’s office. Of course that was the last thing she wanted the doctor to see. She had already been in the bathroom twice to try to wipe everything off but she kept getting ‘whiffs’ of it. To make matters worse, losing the cream caused to her to be in fiery pain just sitting still!
When her name was called, the two walked back and found their way back into the same examination room as Jordan had been in just a couple months before. The tall slender girl walked with her legs slightly apart, almost as though she was still wearing a diaper.
I hate this place, Jordan thought, but at least I get to keep my clothes on this time!
After taking her vitals, the nurse turned to ask, “So I see you were in just a couple months ago for a full exam, how can we help you today?”
Sitting on the crinkly paper of the exam table, legs dangling, Jordan was cold – frozen with anxiety.
Sally spoke up, “She’s developed another diaper rash and I’m afraid this time it looks pretty bad.”
“Oh, I see.” The nurse frowned in what could’ve been taken for empathy or perhaps disapproval, and then flipped through Jordan’s chart seemingly reviewing previous material before she began writing on the top page. She looked up and asked, “How long has it been going on?”
“Well,” Sally answered, “it’s been more or less an ongoing issue since the bedwetting started last fall back before she first saw Dr. Yepp. This latest round began maybe a week ago and coincided with a pretty bad bladder infection she contracted. We were actually in the ER last Monday for it; she had a high fever and was actually temporarily incontinent. Once we got home, it just didn’t go away.”
By now Jordan was blushing a dark shade of red and looking down.
“Oh dear. Sounds like a pretty rough stretch for you Jordan. We’ll get you fixed up quick though.” She couldn’t get any eye contact with the teen so she gave a slight smile to Sally before continuing, “I’ll get those records faxed over so the doctor can take a look.
She finished up her notes and grabbed a sheet from the cabinet under the exam table. “Well, the doctor’s gonna wanna examine you again hun. Please take everything off below your waist and you can cover yourself with this.” She handed the sheet to the nervous girl sitting on the table. The nurse padded out.
After the door clicked closed and mother and daughter were left alone again, Jordan exclaimed, “MOM! I have to get poked and prodded and pulled and grabbed again? I thought you said they’d just give me a quick prescription or something?!”
“Jordie most doctors want to examine their patients. If your rash was on your hand, you wouldn’t have to take off your skirt. But since it’s on your vulva – he’s gotta see it. Sorry. Part of being a woman.”
“Part of being a diaper baby.” Jordan said under her breath with a little more disdain than she really meant as she pulled off her skirt and panties.
When the doctor came in the room, Jordan was back sitting on the exam table with the sheet wrapped over her legs and under the edge of her rear end.
“Good afternoon ladies. How are we doing today?” Dr. Yepp asked.
“Fine.” They both responded politely.
“So I hear Jordan that you’ve suffering with some uncomfortable sores for about a week? Is that true?”
“…Um…yeah…” Jordan said.
“Hmm. That doesn’t sound very fun. And you also had a pretty significant infection I hear?”
“No…I mean…yeah…I mean…no it’s not too fun and yes, I did get pretty sick last week,” she said nervously.
“Well would you please lean back and let me take a look?”
As he examined her, he continued to talk. “Now I know you had a bout with nocturnal enuresis a few months ago – and we had you checked out for sleep apnea which turned out normal. And apparently the bedwetting has continued since then?”
“Um…Yes.” She said before exclaiming, “OOOOH!”
“Sorry, sensitive spot huh?”
“Yeah” she agreed through gritted teeth.
“Your skin is in fairly rough shape Jordan, I’m not surprised it hurts. I have to admit, your case is pretty unusual.” He said, still unseen to the teenager. It was beyond weird to be talking with someone who was down there hidden by a sheet looking at her crotch like that but in all truth, the past 4-5 months had been a culmination of weird and humiliating events. This was just one of the long list. So she just tried to relax a little.
I really hate being a girl sometimes. She thought.
Finally, the doctor sat up on his stool and looked toward Sally. “Typically, children who are potty trained just continue wetting the bed into their childhoods and sometimes into their teenage years. I think I mentioned this before. What I didn’t say is that it’s a little more rare for a teenager to just begin wetting the bed out of the blue like this – and especially for it to persist seemingly without cause.” He looked back toward Jordan, “Now, I can’t remember, are you still using some kind of absorbent product at night?”
“Well yeah,” Sally said interjecting, “that’s how we’ve been managing it thus far. To save bedding and everything, it’s just a much much easier solution after so many months.”
“Of course. Well, typically after it’s gone on this long, we want to try to do some additional testing to make sure something serious isn’t going on unseen. Like I said, this kind of thing in kids is usually just a passing phase. But sometimes in teens and adults, there’s a treatable cause; and in those cases, diapers or pads or other incontinence products aren’t really considered good long term treatment options.” He looked at Sally matter-of-factly.
“Oh – well…I…thought this would just go away on it’s own…in it’s own course…” Sally replied sounding a little defensive.
“You’re right. It generally does and maybe hers will. But in Jordan’s case, we call it ‘sudden onset enuresis’ and that often indicates some underlying cause. Sometimes its something like sleep apnea (which we ruled out), other times it’s psychological, other times is urological; it can be diabetes (which her blood tests don’t indicate), it can be certain forms other serious diseases. There are many potential causes. I’m not saying she has something nefarious. I’m just saying that to continue to just let her put on a pull-up every night could be like putting a band aid on a gash that requires stitches. It might help for a little while but eventually the underlying cause is gonna create more problems.”
Both Jordan and her mom nodded gravely.
“So, I want her to get seen by a urologist for further testing ASAP. Ok? I’ll get a referral started with the nurse.”
Sally tried to relax with all the words being thrown around about serious diseases. “Well what about this rash then? We’ve been putting desitin on it every night and sometimes during the day but it doesn’t seem to be helping.” Sally said.
“Well typically zinc based creams like that would work alright. And I think she should be applying a barrier cream of some sort every night some sort of protector or not – she obviously has sensitive skin.” He said speaking as though Jordan the one who had been doing all the applications of the products to that region.
“In addition, Jordan you probably should be changing your pad immediately if it’s wet during the night and not just sleep in it all the way until morning. Mom—maybe that mean’s you’ll have to check on her here or there and wake her up. What sort of product have you been using anyways? Perhaps it isn’t a good enough quality?”
To Jordan’s ongoing relief, Sally spoke again, “Well, we’ve been using some really nice high quality adult diapers that they had her use at the sleep clinic. She had been leaking out of the pull-ups and she had forgotten to bring one when she went for the study, so they provided her with one of their…briefs. It worked so well, I decided to start using those on her.”
The doctor looked as though he might’ve been a little surprised by this but shrugged it off. “Oh, well, I’m sure that’s about as good as it gets in the absorbency department then. Let me check one more thing.”
He went back between her legs with his big flashlight and gloved hands to Jordan’s disappointment.
Speaking from down there he continued, “Having a moist warm environment for hours on end all sealed in by a plastic diaper is without a doubt going to create a breeding ground for bacteria or fungus on your delicate skin Jordan. Down here though; this looks like it could also be something fungal – like candida or something similar.”
He sat up and pulled off his gloves. “You can sit up and cover up Jordan.” Then looking back at Sally, “It won’t respond to over the counter creams like desitin. She’s probably going to need an anti-fungal that is prescription strength and probably an oral dose to go with it. I’m going to prescribe you both. Ok?”
“Ok.” Sally said as Jordan jostled with the sheet, attempting to cover herself sensing that the worst of the examination was over.
“In addition, Jordan, I’m also going to prescribe you a vaginal yeast infection treatment regiment. It’ll have detailed instructions on how to use it and I’m sure your mom can help, but essentially it’s made to treat any infection you have on the inside surfaces of skin as well.”
Jordan nodded feeling numb and anxious and beyond ready to leave.
“Perhaps you could take a few days off from the diapers too eh? Some fresh air and space to breathe from all that plastic and padding wouldn’t hurt anything either.”
Unlikely proposal. Both mother and daughter thought simultaneously for different reasons but nodded politely just the same.
“Talk to the receptionist about getting that referral as well. And Jordan?”
“Yes?” She looked at the doctor, still trying to keep covered.
“Barrier cream, all over yourself – front and back – every night ok? Until this wetting stops.”
“Ok Dr. Yepp.” She said embarrassed.
Another doctor’s appointment? Jordan thought to herself, Why do I have to keep getting poked, surveyed, and squeezed? I hate this. I wish there could be doctor diagnoses by phone!! That urolgizer—whatever doesn’t sound fun at all.