8 year old - what to expect?

[jdmom]

Welcome jdmom,

 

I could totally identify with you when you said your heart broke in to a million pieces that morning. that's just how I felt, I don't think I've ever felt so devastated in my life. My son is 9.5 now and was diagnosed with TS in May last year. Like you, I also knew about TS, my brother has it {though it was never mentioned} and I had done my own research on it 15 yrs earlier. Little did I know my own son would have it. I did not know it was heriditary til I researched it when my son had it.

 

However, my son Brendan is doing fine, really he is. It is more of a problem for me than it is for him. Mostly I'd sau his tics are mild, but there are times when they escalate, I'd say moderate.

 

Like your boy, my son tics more when excited or stressed. You're right, we can't stop them from having fun just so we can ease the tics. I can also pinpoint the exact day it dawned on me... April 19th, 2008... during his soccer game. There had been tiny, insignificant things in the past, but that head to the side tic did it for me. I had to stop myself from crying just watching him.

 

I really do relate to you, and i want you to know that he will be fine in the end. Honestly, I never thought I'd get over it, but it's nowhere near like I thought it would be.

 

I go between accepting it and then falling back to not accepting it. Sometimes I prefer not to look at him, so I don't see them. That stinks, but I think most of us have gone through that.

 

I am nowhere near as knowledgable as some of the other ladies on here, but I can relate to how you are feeling.

 

all the best, and keep us posted please. Moral support helps so much.

 

Lyn.

Lyn,

Thank you so much for your reply. It is comforting to hear from other moms going through similar feelings. So we're 2 1/2 years into this thing and I am having some relief in that things have not gotten severe. Is it possible this can stay fairly mild/moderate and it will just be a quirky thing of his? It sounds like if your brother has it and never knew the name he must have a mild case. So I go around in circles with these thoughts and know it is really out of my control which is very difficult for me to accept. We were camping last weekend with friends and my son was having such a wonderful time playing 4 square with the other kids. He was doing a lot of neck movements and it was hard to watch and I felt like the parents of the friends we were with were noticing and watching him and that made me so nervous. I just don't know how to handle it. Do I say something or just ignore the elephant in the room? I feel that there is such a stigma associated with tics/tourettes that makes it difficult to speak openly about. Their son stutters and I don't say anything about that so it's sort of the same thing really. Anyway, thanks for listening here. It's so nice to know someone out there can relate. If only I had a crystal ball and could see him happy and thriving as an adult and then I could relax through this whole thing.

Sandy

[ilovedogs]

I feel the same way, Sandy! If only I had a crystal ball and could see the future, LOL! I think alot of us here are in the same boat. I know a few adults who had TS as a child and they all said it was relatively mild and that by the time they were teenagers they were able to control the tics more and then they pretty much subsided by adulthood. I also know of a few teens who stopped ticcing at the age of 14 or so right after bug pubescent growth spurts. For me, it's the other stuff that goes along with the tics that makes our life hard, not the tics themselves. We've been very lucky, too, where the tics have been relatively mild for the most part and mostly isolated to his head and jaw. My son is 11 now and has been having tics for exactly 2 years and he's only complained about them once so I think we've been very blessed!

 

Bonnie

 

Ok: Duh, I had already mentioned a lot of this stuff in my first post on this thread. but, I wanted to encourage you anyway so I left it as is! I think I need more caffeine!!

[jdmom]

I feel the same way, Sandy! If only I had a crystal ball and could see the future, LOL! I think alot of us here are in the same boat. I know a few adults who had TS as a child and they all said it was relatively mild and that by the time they were teenagers they were able to control the tics more and then they pretty much subsided by adulthood. I also know of a few teens who stopped ticcing at the age of 14 or so right after bug pubescent growth spurts. For me, it's the other stuff that goes along with the tics that makes our life hard, not the tics themselves. We've been very lucky, too, where the tics have been relatively mild for the most part and mostly isolated to his head and jaw. My son is 11 now and has been having tics for exactly 2 years and he's only complained about them once so I think we've been very blessed!

 

Bonnie

 

Ok: Duh, I had already mentioned a lot of this stuff in my first post on this thread. but, I wanted to encourage you anyway so I left it as is! I think I need more caffeine!!

 

 

Bonnie, have you tried any of the natural remedies with your son or since his tics are mild haven't felt the need to do anything? It's so bizarre how they come and go (well not really, you know what I mean). There just has to be something causing this pattern, triggers as they say. We have been really keeping an eye on my son's sugar intake and his ticcing has decreased recently. I don't know if there is a correlation or simply coincidence but we are going to keep trying to eliminate sugar, chemicals, etc. from his diet as much as possible.

 

BTW, I am sorry for my delayed reply. My father was diagnosed with a brain tumor on Monday and had it removed on Wednesday. The surgery went really well thankfully. He also had a brain aneurism in 1982. We seem to have a lot of brain things going on in the family! Fortunately, things somehow seem to keep working out so I have to believe the tics will too!