Tics seem to be up for a lot of folk I know — including my own kid. More vocals — this time kind of a high-pitched squeak. Not really loud, but it is punctuating his sentences big time.
The other night, while doing math with him, he was doing quite a bit of nodding and squeaking, along with some eye rolls. Did it worry me a bit? Yes. But I also have to say that he just cracked me up. He’s just so funny and charming. We had this entire discourse on the pros and cons of adding up the perimeters of an object.
I wanted to take the area of the invisible square and then do some subtraction, where he came up with some theory on multiplying a side by 10 and then dividing some fraction of the base and mixing it with the hair of a chihuahua and a bald eagle tail feather. (I swear, his mind moves so fast, I can’t keep up with his figures.)
Bottom line: We both got the same answer and had a lot of laughs in the process. I’ll take it, even if this means fighting my instinct to freak out about tics.
One might be led to ask, “Really? Then why do the acupuncture if it’s not working?”
I think that’s like telling a person who has been fat since childbirth to not exercise since they are large anyway. Movement keeps them healthy on the inside and keeps less chunk from accumulating.
Likewise, Stink has TS. As much as I want acupuncture to be a silver bullet, it serves more like a nice balance for his system. Some days are better than others. Martina is not the Tic Whisperer — she is not going to eradicate all symptoms through her magical fingers — not when we don’t 100 percent stick to diet, a perfect sleep schedule, a perfect exercise routine and a no-video policy.
What is your tic management protocol?
I’d love to hear where you are all at in regards to managing tics. Personally, I am really listening to my readers who have TS and encourage me to let my kid be who he is. (As long as Stink remains happy regardless of a few twitches.)
If I ever sound like a broken record, too, I want to know.
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You also can find me writing about my faith at Believe.com. Any writers out there or people of faith? Contact me and I’ll be happy to link you from my posts when applicable!
