As an incoming college freshman, calling home to say “mom, I can’t stop peeing the bed” wasn’t really on your radar screen, right? For most people, it’s not. Well, let me tell you my story.
I woke up one morning after a night out, flabbergasted, as I was laying in a puddle of—had I sweat that much while I was sleeping? I knew what I had done. I had wet the bed. I assessed the “sticky” situation, thought through my options, and proceeded to take off the first layer of sheets, put them in the wash, and let the rest of the bed air dry.
I, desperate for human contact to reassure me that I wasn’t crazy, called my friend. She walked into my room, laughing hysterically. I laughed with her and said, “stop, this is so embarrassing.” When I told her my plan was to let the rest of my sheets dry, she screamed, “ARE YOU CRAZY?! No, this is all coming off.” She then took apart my entire bed and threw it in the laundry, while I just stood there with my my deformed egg crate staring back at me. Judging me.
I’d love to tell you that this experience was the finale of my epic bedwetting tale…. but it’s not. I proceeded to wet the bed on numerous other occasions. Eventually, all my friends knew about my predicament and encouraged me to just laugh it off. They definitely made it easier, but inside, I just didn’t know how to handle this situation. I was 19, trying to learn how to stop wetting the bed, as if I were a toddler again.
The climax of the story came when I woke up in my boyfriend’s bed to another wet surprise. It wasn’t my twin sized sheets that were soaked, but rather his queen sized EVERYTHING soaked in the remnants of my alcohol intake from the prior night. Here I was, in a boy’s bed… panicking.
I grabbed my phone.t was 4:00 AM. No one would be awake to help me handle this situation. I tried to quietly slip out of bed and creep off to the bathroom. However, as I made a wrong sudden movement, I woke him up, startling him to the wetness underneath him.
“Oh my god,” he chuckled nervously, “Why is it wet? Did you wet the bed?!” he asked. “Pshhh no. Are you serious? That was definitely not me,” I said. And I stormed off to the bathroom.
To be honest, I don’t know why I tried to deny it. It was so obviously me. My boyfriend proceeded to change the sheets, “playing along” and pretending it was him who did it, just so he didn’t have to fight with me at 4 in the morning. Good call by him.
When we woke up the next morning, I was sure I had dreamt it. But, when I saw the crumpled up sheets on the floor, I knew it was true.
“I wet the bed. I know it was me. I am so sorry.” I couldn’t say it with a straight face.
He burst out laughing, “Now I get to call you bedwetter! You’re never going to live this down.” Wow. He must be something special if he’s totally fine with a bedwetter girlfriend.
Struggling with bladder problems has not been easy. Even though I have, since then, gone on medication, problems related to this will always be one of my concerns. Although most people can contain their bladders better than I can, I know I am not the only one who’s had this problem. One in every few of you are going to experience a “wet” night in college, and I promise you, it is going to be okay! You can make light of any situation, no matter how embarrassing it is. And it makes one hell of a story.