CSP

This experience will always leave you a different person then before, and just letting go of what we thought our child would grow up to be like. Not settling for something less, just different. God knows we all cope with pain differently, I am the worst person in our family that deals with this, but I also see everyone else would give up on him and let him eat and drink all the things that would be really bad for him. So I look at this as I am the one doing all the work keeping him healthy everyone else just goes on living like he is just fine. That is actually a good thing in our house because as the mom I know I will always feel their pain no matter what that pain is. I see that my son always comes to me when he is not feeling well, even tho he loves his dad very much, he wants me to take care of his needs. He may argue with me over a vit. but thats ok, no one else would do this for him. Do I still lose is when he has a bad day or week, (YES) I just do what I can to make sure he feels less of my worry. I now can enjoy the fruits of my labor as my husband and I receive comments from men in our community that adore our son. His boss says he is a hard worker, the 25 year firefighters would love for him to have their back in a fire, our parish priest blessed and gave him a medal of the patron saint of firefighters on All Saints Day. Why??? Is it because they can see and hear him ticcing and marvel at how he copes and still keeps a smile on his face. I really don't know... but is sure keeps me going. He is 17 and at 12 yo when he first exploded I never would have believe this is where he would be. I would not cange anything on how I coped because it is all in God's plan for my son. I may feel like crap and think I did not handle something the right way, but I know there is always some "GRACE" out of this suffering. One of the best reasons for looking at this as a blessing is to be right there with you all felling your pain, praying for you, and just knowing their are others out there that suffer more, and I have great compassion for them too that I may never have had if life was just a piece of cake. cp

Hi Bonnie, Try walnuts if he can eat them as a snack before bed. Walnuts have bio-available melatonin naturally. I guess he did not eat enough TURKEY yesterday huh? LOL! CP

I'm so glad I checked in today. Remember... God will never let your CROSS be one inch too long, or one ounce too heavy for you to carry. I'm a Catholic and one of the things that helped me soooo much was to meditate on the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady. As a mother too I was able to connect so deeply with our Lord's mother and how even she could not escape suffering. There is something special in suffering or Our Lord would not have suffered so much. Praying that this sorrow you are feeling at this time is also linked with little bits of joy to help you through, until you wake every morning and the first thing you think of is NOT TS. It's a wonderful feeling. God Bless, cp

giulia, Do you believe your son to have allergies, and the vit D helps with that and controlling the alergies was helping the tics? I have been reading vitD should help with allergies/asthma cp

Welcome, The last appt. we had with our neuro. he did say we could try ALT. we were shocked. Expect the dr. to sugg. meds, but do ask about Alt. My son did get red ears a lot when he was younger, and we think it was allergies but don't know what was the allergy. He has a huge peanut allergy that the dr. said he would have many allergies because of that. You could start getting appt. with allergy dr. so you feel like you have started something and not waiting all this time for the neuro. Have you started cleaning out his diet? cp

Any update on the empower plus? cp

It's been 5 years and I still have those moments, and funny thing I'm always blaming myself when the gene comes from my husbands family. I hate fish, so he did not get and omega's while pregnant. I had the baby blues so bad we never bonded. God is just punishing me for past sins. You name it... I thought it. Now I like to blame my moods on my age, hee hee! I homeschool my 13yo (one without TS) and it would be very hard if my TS son was home during school time. I understand! God bless, cp

Well son has waxed these couple days and I really could not tell if it is because of the full moon or also other things too. We are celabrating his 17th b-day this weekend, he is all excited he won the bet and the other guy has to wear the dress. And he has told me his teeth hurt or at least one tooth that still is being pulled down by the braces. I'm at a loss... but it is not the vocals that have increased, it is his head/neck tic. cp

Lynn, How is he doing today?

Chris, Welcome. Did your son have any vaccines lately? Diet changes can be whole foods, fruits, vegys, meat, ect... Try that for a week and see if there are any changes. when you get a grip on the foods you want to feed him then start taking things out that you think could be an allergy. Don't do it all at one time, or you will end up like I did, crying in the isle of the store not knowing what to buy. My son exploded with vocals after shots and he was on risperdal for 6 months. It took the vocals away about 50% but never all gone. The diet change we made took the motor tics away, and we only saw those come back during stressful times. I believe we saw the risperdal start working after 3 weeks. God Bless, CP

Lynn, I will pray for your son today during Adoration. My son also plays baseball and getting hit has been one of my worst fears. Truly hope this increase is short lived and praying you feel God's peace soon. CP

Hi Faith, Try not to stop, get past the full moon and the fall allergies. I think if you are not seeing an increase the krill oil will at least help hopefully with school and mood. Ok so I really don't get what my son is doing right now. He is instantly ticcing as soon as he hears stressful or exciting news. Then after a while it is gone. What is that... does anyone else's child do this. So he is fine now that the Yankees lost last night. Will he start up again tonight when the Giants play, who knows? His birthday is next week and I think he will get more ticcy on that day, but over all he is not waxing as bad as he has in the past. His moon is still nice and picked up driving a stick shift in about an hour, he is being very responsable with his job too. CP

4jack, I'm not sure I understand what I'm reading about the myelin sheath? Is that more of the OCD part of TS? CP

Well how is your son doing these last few days before the full moon? Mine is starting to wax, but I could kill him because he made a bet at the fire house the Giants would have a better play-off record then the Yankees, and if he loses he has to report to duty night in a dress. Do you know how many e-mails we are getting with guys putting their two cents in and telling my son he would look good in polka dots, panty hose, a mini skirt...My son's head tic goes nuts while he is waiting for the e-mails to come up. So I'm so confused and could not tell you all if this is causing the waxing or the soon to be full moon. He better make it big in the sports world after all he has put me through!!! CP

I'm also a "NO" on the fku shots. Some parents feel their child have had really bad increases in the tics after the flu shots. I believe the flu shots will do more harm then good. I'll take 2 days of the flu then months of waxing tics. CP