The Last Day of School

Today is day 9 of Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month.  It also happens to be the last day of school for Monster Man, his siblings, and their classmates.  What does this mean for kids with TS?  As with any other kid, it means an incredible amount of excitement.  However, excitement (just like stress) can lead to an overabundance of tics.

The truth is, tics tend to increase in both number and severity during periods of high stress or excitement.  It's almost as if the ticcer's body doesn't know how to handle the extra stimuli, and thus goes into overdrive.  In Monster Man's case, he's been doing this half shoulder-shrug/half head-shake thing, which he only does during high excitement or high stress periods, and he's been doing this multiple times a minute.  Sometimes, he doesn't even notice he's doing it.  Other times, he's annoyed because he feels like he can't stop doing it.

Sadly, the high levels of stress and excitement can also lead to increased problems with other issues, like irritability that can lead to a rage episode.  When just the right trigger comes along, he can become like a stick of dynamite, exploding when the lit fuse finally reaches the stick.  As if he's suddenly been triggered, he just explodes, losing control of his emotions.

He was put to the test just a couple of days ago at school.  His teachers have all recently told me that they've never seen his lose his temper or get anywhere close to a rage episode, but they apparently spoke too soon.  With all the excitement of the end-of-the-year activities, he's been building up all the extra emotion inside him.  During field day, a classmate poured water over him, and he immediately responded by putting the kid in a headlock.  Thankfully the episode didn't go past there, as it very easily could have.  The teachers could have seen much worse had he not been able to regain his self-control as fast as he did.

It concerns me greatly to know that he did start to lose his temper at school, that a trigger set him off outside his usual comfort zone at home.  This only proves to me even more that I am doing the right thing in taking him back to the neurologist next month to see about getting him on a medication that can help him better control some of the issues he has.

Return of the "woo-oo"

We have come to the point where we don't even notice most of Monster Man's tics anymore.  There is one tic that really sticks out, though.  It had gone away for a while, but it returned earlier this week.  It's his loudest tic, the one that is most noticeable to others.  Sometimes, the tic almost seems like a normal reaction, as it usually happens when he is watching a movie or playing video games and gets excited, but there are other times when he is excited that this tic shows up.

With this particular tic, we've noticed (as I already stated) that it seems to happen when he is excited.  He lets out a loud "Woo-oo".  Doesn't seem like much, but there are times when he is watching something particularly exciting and he keeps repeating it every couple of minutes.  It's fine at home or at hockey games, but wouldn't be fine at a movie theater or another public performance where it would become a distraction to those around us.  It's sad to think that we have to limit him from certain activities like that just so that his tics don't become bothersome since he hasn't learned to control them very well yet.

For now, he's more comfortable in situations where he can be excited and not have to worry.  I guess it will be that way for a while, until this tics disappears again or until he finds a way to control it.

Can he control it or not?

Sometimes knowing that Monster Man has Tourette Syndrome makes it hard for me to know if certain behaviors are something that he can control or if they are tics. For about a month now, every time Monster Man gets excited while playing a video game or watching a movie, he'll yell "woo-ooo" (like woohoo, without the h). It's always the same noise, always the same tone, and it's always when he is excited. At first, we were telling him to quiet down since he often did this with someone sitting next to him, and it is loud enough that it hurts our ears when we are in close proximity to him. In fact, it seems loud just being in the same room with him when he does this. Now we think it might be one of his many tics, though. It doesn't seem like he can control it, and now he's even starting to get a little upset when he does it himself.

The worst thing about this particular (possible) tic is that it bothers him more than the others. Yes, it does bother us at times, but it really seems to aggravate him even more. He is starting to realize that he can't always control his own body, and it upsets him to feel so helpless. It's going to take a lot of time and work to help him learn how to control this tic and the others he is already experiencing. Hopefully we will soon be able to get him the help he needs to learn how to take back some control of his body.