A Testing Time

Three days have flown by and not in a good way! The absence from the blog was due to intensive support required to get Boy Wonder through a difficult time. A time where we have had to seriously rethink how we keep him safe. I will stop talking in riddles ......

It started with a visit from the Second Opinion Educational Psychologist. She came to assess Boy Wonder at home to enable her to complete a tribunal report. The day was well planned with short activities and plenty of breaks. However it soon became very clear that Boy Wonder was struggling with the intensity of the activities, processing and general understanding. He became very fidgety, demanding of deep pressure and highly anxious. This resulted in him shouting at the EP, running from the room, self harming and finally finishing off in complete meltdown. She had managed to complete about half of the assessment with him before we agreed to call it a day. This certainly highlighted the areas of change that I discussed in the earlier blog.

The day didn't improve and Superman and I were reluctant to go out to the theatre due to Boy Wonder's low, unpredictable mood. However, we did go and grandparents babysat for him and Cat Girl. I called home after an hour and spoke to Boy Wonder who said that he was feeling a bit better.

We returned home just after 10pm and noticed the light on on the bathroom. When we got inside we enquired about the light to be told that both children were in bed.  I went upstairs to check and found Boy Wonder's bed empty. I went to the bathroom door that was locked. I shouted to Boy Wonder and got no response. I banged on the door, no response. Superman responded to my shouts and broke the lock off of the door. Boy Wonder had put himself in the bath and fallen to sleep. I pulled him out and wrapped him in a towel, he was okay but appeared sedate. Luckily the water had been shallow and his face had remained above the surface. The water was still warm so he hadn't been there long. It could have been such a different story!!

Boy Wonder remembers nothing from this night after putting himself in the bath. He hasn't processed the risk and we haven't wanted to labour this due to his already fragile emotional state.

Since this night we have done nothing but analyse, risk assess and attempt to second guess any further acts of impulse. This has resulted in removing the lock permanently from the bathroom door, hiding the bath plug and installing an audio monitoring system in his bedroom to track movement.

The incident has opened up discussion within the family about the growing complexity of Boy Wonder's condition and raised the bar for supervision to keep him safe when he is not being directly looked after by Superman and I.

Boy Wonder has also gone back to school this week which has brought additional anxiety to the table. Coupled with a pending local authority response deadline and a meeting, the week is a busy one!

On a positive note, the weighted blanket had arrived and we are in the early stages of using it. Hopefully it will work well and aid Boy Wonder's sleep.