Living With the Actual Tourette's Boy
Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 4:22PM I was going to go to bed. Read. Relax. Enjoy some time where the kids weren’t at each other like a married couple in their 40th year of a loveless union.
Instead, I’m up. I’m listening to my 12yo sit at the dining room table working to relax himself with a pile of LEGO bricks and a podcast on Wolfram|Alpha as his body runs through a series of vocal tics, the most offensive of which sounds like he’s going to vomit.
Tics wax and wane, like the phases of the moon. Not with the predictability of the lunar cycles, however. Instead, people with Tourette Syndrome and their families ride the waves of tics as they come and go. Sometimes the tics overlap one another. They can be vocal or motor in nature. Complex or simple. And every person’s experience is a little bit different.
For all that my son has been through because of TS, he’s surprisingly nonchalant about it most of the time. It’s just who he is.
But as his mother, in the other room, listening to him choking, sniffing, gagging—it hurts my heart. And it sucks.
Reader Comments (6)
Uggh, I SO know what he's going through and sadly for see a future of ignorant uneducated adults that just don't understand what this is, or what we deal with on a daily basis, but I take comfort in knowing what a awesomely strong kick ass Mama he has and know he'll fare just fine in ignoring the ignorant!
Growing up in the 80's Tourette's was rarely discussed or even given the respect of being called a disorder, and I'm hoping with all the technology and advancements in modern medicine things will be easier for him. People can be so rude and cruel, but thankfully with Tourette's we also inherit a thicker set of skin!
Still, as a Mama of a child with this disorder, I KNOW how your heart hurts for him. All any mother could want for her child is to be able to "fix" them when they're sick, etc. I know the pain my own Mother suffered every time she'd catch a stranger staring, wanting to defend me, explain to them WHAT it was. Even to my own Grandmother when she lived with us,who would constantly berate me about it, not being able to sit in the same room with her without getting whopped with a newspaper and a snappy "Quit that!" every time my vocal tics became louder than the news.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know ya'll aren't alone, and tell him he's lucky to have such a strong Mama in his corner and he's always welcome to come hang out with a hot babe who is just like him! ;)