Gotta Chill Out

So...I was up in Boston last week chatting w/ my boss. If you recall from earlier posts, she had TS as a kid and has a rather "twitchy" aspect when under stress. She was asking how The Boy is doing and I told her that mostly, it's just the exaggerated blinking. I told her a few other things that he does that align with the write-ups on TS and she gave me some interesting and good advice: Don't read into all of his actions as having to do with Tourette's. I mean, let me give you some examples. His constant throat clearing...at one point, this was definitely something that was not under his control and it was also not related to anything like sinus drainage or something like that. But now? Since moving to this area, he's dealing with all sorts of allergies. His docs actually confirmed that. So, yah, his throat clearing could be his allergies, TS or both. Who can tell? Another one that the psychiatrist noted was his tendency to echo something someone said. He happened to do it with her - she said, "Follow me. I'm way down at the end of the hall." The Boy followed her singing "Way down at the end of the hall," over and over. Um...if memory serves, I'm pretty sure that was an obnoxious thing I found very funny when I was 5 or 6. And I notice that lots of K and 1st graders tend to do this, if they are of that ilk (wisenheimers). So is that TS or is it just The Boy being a goof. I have to say, I don't see him do that echoing very often. So I'm chalking that one up to goof.

Anyway, I'm not being stupid by thinking everything is just coincidence. But at the same time, I'm trying to chill out on the analysis of every movement or sound. All of my reading has told me that diagnosis of TS at the age of 5 is not the norm. Probably because TS can be progressive and usually gets to the point of someone saying, "OK...that's just not normal" when they're more like 8 or 9. I think The Boy's early diagnosis was fortuitous but also a fluke. If he hadn't told me that his body was making him do this stuff, I would never have noticed most of his actions as anything other than The Boy being The Boy.

So, Hubby and I are trying to let him be a six year old. His blinking and eye movements are still a reminder that TS is there. Some of his noises still remind us, too. But then, some of his noises remind me of experiments most of us were doing with noises in the 1st grade.

Just thought I'd share. Because I was starting to watch everything with too much scrutiny. Making myself nuts. I think I'll save that energy for a time - if it happens - when his TS needs it. For now, I'm the mom of a pretty normal (and as Trish points out - genius) six year old.