WE MOVE
204 West 84th Street
New York, NY 10024
E-mail: wemove@wemove.org
wemove.org • mdvu.org
Through Jordan's Eyes: Helping My Son Cope with TS
I survived a childhood of taunting, I pushed through, and if I had not, I would not be as helpful to my son. Maybe, everything happens for a reason.
– Janet Smith
He walks in again today, rolling his eyes up to try and hold back a flood of tears. It has been another day from the life of a 13 year old handling Tourette's syndrome. I pull him onto my shoulder, rub his back as he coils left, wretches right, with his neck, trying to just get a comforting hug from his mom. I am his only safe place, he feels, where he can just cry it out. He should be telling me about how much he likes this one girl, or how he totally aced a trick on his skateboard, or how he can not wait to start baseball again this spring. Instead, he has to shake in a thunder of emotion because a teacher sent him out of the room, finding his tics "too distracting" for his classmates. "Why Mom? Why won't this stupid Tourette's quit? Will it ever stop? Will it ever get better?" I am lost for a good answer, so I just say, "I hope so,Jordan, I hope so. I will research EVERY new treatment every day til life feels normal to you again. He feels guilty because I have MS, and I tell him everyone has a right to a little pity party for two when life slams you. But, you have to keep trying to push through this storm, buddy, because I love you and you can win if you realize Tourette's can't take YOU away. I spend my days fielding cracks from his sibling like "twitchy", and helping him get through his homework when his head keeps wrenching side to side. I was picked on as a child for physical birth defects, and my heart FEELS what it feels like for him. I am his mom, and I want to protect him, but know I can not. All I can do is the very thing I tell my sweet son, push on, push with everything you can to make it out the other side of this storm. Hold my hand, little man, you are not in this alone, and you will win.
