John

Hang on in there Frazer As we say over here dont let the b***ards get you down. You have plenty of friends here. Live your life as best you can and dont worry about anyone else.

Hi tlkinser, and welcome to the Forum. First thing I must say is your son has not changed into a different person. He is still the same loving child he always was. Dont treat him any different to how you treated him before. Take a deep breath and a time out. You are not going to see an improvement over night. Take your time and try things one step at a time. It seems you are doing a lot already, good for you. It is very easy to get snowed under with info from this forum. Take your time. You seem to be making an exellent start already. Please try not to let this dominate your lives. We all know exactly how you feel. We have been through the exact same feelings of dispair, panic, helplessness ect. Dont stop going out as a family, remember its always harder for us parents as it is for our kids. Dont give up and as someone said to me a few months ago when I was feeling the same as you "there is light at the end of the dark tunnell and you will get there eventually" we have and so will you. Have hope it will work itself out. God Bless J

Hi CP I saw a programme not so long ago about a guy who had very bad vocals with his TS (he also swore a lot) The way he explained it was that the more he had to be quite the more the urge to shout came about until he did it. It was a taboo type thing the same as if he was in church etc, he was compelled to shout because he new he should be quite. Hope that info helps.

Welcome to the Foirum Calicat. Seems like youve done your homework and have started the ball rolling. Like I always say, mostly its worse for the parents then it is for the kids. Be strong for her and dont let it dominate you and your familys life.

Good luck with the Ped Marianne but please dont get your hopes up. Most Drs & Peds are only interested and believe in things that are medically and scientifically proven. In there book TS etc can only be treated with strong drugs. Even Drs that study TS dont want to hear about Tic triggers, stress realated issues etc. Im not trying to rain on your parade, I just dont want you to get your hopoes up. Be prepared to battle to get these tests done, and dont let the b*****ds get you down

Glad to hear your reading my thread Marianne. In time you will come to terms withwhat is going on and I must re-iterate, please try not to watch for his tic and please try not to let it dominate your life. The more you let it bother you the more it will bother him. Back when this first started in January I was out shopping and I saw this girl about 13 yrs old out shopping with her mum. It was during the school time. This girl suffered from Psoriosis and her whole face, hair, hands, every inch of flesh was covered in scabs and pieces of skin flaking off. Some parts were bleeding from scratching and her shoulders were covered in flakes of skin. Her skinn was also covered in ointment to help elivioate the itching flaking etc. Everyone stared at this poor girl, as it really did look terrible. My heart went out to her and her mother, and it effected me deeply. I felt such pity for them that even now my thoughts and prayers go out to them. My point here is when I got out of the shop I thanked god for given my son a tic and not what that poor girl had. I went home and told my wife how bloody lucky we are and still think that to this day. Keep your chin up, at times its like a roller coaster ride. You will have your highs and lows but always remember you are not alone here and nor are your children

Hi Marianne The link that I gave you in my last post was not a link to another web site. It was the link to the thread that I started on this forum when my son started rolling his eyes. Please please click on it and read my thread. You will see that I was going through almost identiaclly what you are. It may also help you in helping your son respond to the questions or teasing at school. You wil see what we did and it worked very well. Have a read and get back to me with any questions.

Hi Marianne & welcome to the forum Trust me I know exactly what you are going through. Here is a link (copy and paste it into the tool bar) to my original thread called (worried confused and need help) if the link doesnt work http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2161 My son started eye rolling in January. My wife and I were sick with worry. The whole thing dominated our lives. We would watch him all the time to see how often he was ticcing etc. I would shout at him (thinking he should be able to control it) and basically doing everything we shouldnt. As with you I think that stress started it all off. He still tics every now and then but at the moment (thank you god) things are good with us all. Take one step at a time. This web site will over load you with info if you let it. Dont pin your hopes on your Ped to wave a magic wand, as you will se on my thread our Ped dismissed everything about this web site as "medically nothing had been proven". I just dont want you coming out of there feeling crushed in any way. Try not to let your son puick up on your feelings, tyhat may stress him out even more. If stress seems to be the trigger then you need to see and try and take that stress aweay from your son. As was said to me in our first few days, things do and will get better. I am sure Chemar will be along soon to give you one of her hugs. Dont let it dominate your life, one day you will look back at this moment and wonder what all the fuss was about. Take care John

Hi Patty Just wanted to add my support. We all have good days and bad days. The most important thing is what sort of days are our kids having. You kid seems to be having good days, so if he's having good days, we should share them good days with him. Keep you chin up and dont give up. Together we are stronger. J

Hi Guys The test was a swab, not blood. He wasnt ill at the time. The Dr we saw was a consultant Pead who we had been referred to by our family Dr. The only reason he agreed to do the tests (I think) was because I pushed and pushed and pushed him to do them. Will start him on the probiotc tomorrow

Just recieved a call from one of the Peads staff. The test for Strep has come back positive and they have prescribed antibiotics for this. Any ideas as to what we need to do now (apart from giving him the antibio's) To be honest I would love to be there when he reads the results, I hope it may challenge his thinking in regard to Tic's and thier causes, as he did not want to run any tests to begin with. As always your help and advice is greatly appreciated. J

Hi All its been a while. Well this week we finally went to see the Pead to get the official dx. I was dreading going, not because of the dx but because I was going to run into a very high thick brick wall of his ignorance to tic causes, triggers and treatments. It went exactly as I thought it would that TS was nothing to do with allergies etc. I gave him a list of testing that I wanted doing and (I suppose I should be grateful) he agreed to do some of them, but unfortunately he couldn't do all. Not that he was unwilling but quite simply if he was to send to the lab with the reason why he wanted the test done then it would be refused!! I treid to explain that I wasn't a desperate parent that had been looking up the internet desperately looking for a thgread of hope but explained about the experienced here etc. He shrugged it all off saying it had not been mediacley proven etc. I was in with him for 25 mins trying to convince him to do the testing, eventually I won (thank god). He saw and spoke to Connor for about 5 mins. The only good thing he said was that he would not want to medicate my son unless it was really effecting his life, which thank god it isnt. He gets a little bit of ribbing at school but if it wasn't his eye rolling it would be something else, kids after all said and done will be kids. To be honest we dont mention it he doesnt, most of his friends dont so we will take that and move on. We had a great week in the Canary Islands 2 weks ago, his ticcing stayed about the same, lots of sun and swimming, I my wife and I needed the holiday badly. His TS had begun to dominate our lives, its all we seemed to talk and worry about, during the week we hardly mentioned it and it remains the case now. I know its easy for me to say this but don't let it dominate your lives. Take care J

Thanks Chemar

Are most of these tests done by taking a blood sample? Will it take long to get results? Thanks J

fitfroit You have to start taking control of the inviroment your child is in. Firstly give him the tools and confidence to wxplain his tics himself. Our son does the eye rolling and we told him the way to deal with questions from his peers is to say " I have a type of allergy that mekes me do it. I dont have any control over it, I just do it" Kids are inquisative and once they know why something is happening then the tend to just roll with it. Kids are the most curious people on earth. Secondly you need to start explaining what happens to friends or relatives that he is going to be around. We have explained to people to expect it to happen and why it is happening. Then when it does no one questions itor remarks about it. Bring it out into the open then no one is embarressed. Take contriol fitforit. You owe it to your bioy. Good luck John