Well, this was a first for us. Luke and I spent all day yesterday in the Emergency Room because of his TS. He has recently redeveloped his old "head banging" as he calls it....very violent throwing of his head back to chest. It was so constant and so severe he started saying his "brain felt like it was tearing" and his vision was "going black". First time that's ever happened and it scared the daylights out of me!

The ER doctor was very good with Luke...but I have to say the nurses and other doctors were staring as much as the other patients!! He explained that the visual cortex lies in the back of the brain and that his brain was slamming against his skull repetitively causing the visual circuits to be interrupted. He said, in effect, Luke was giving himself a concussion. And, there was a real danger of his retenas detaching from his eyes.

We've had lots of severe ticcing over the years, including lots of things that hurt, but this was so scary. The Dr ordered a CT scan which was normal, thank goodness, and phoned a neuro for medication options. (Luke had only been taking Zoloft.) They decided a combination of clonodine and xanax might help, and thankfully it did within 30 minutes. Fortunately, he sent us home with enough until we can get into the neuro. The tic is still present, but not quite so contant, which makes the pain easier to bear.

Luke seems to be doing better today and there's no major fatigue or other side effects, at least initially. I just needed to tell that story to folks who understand. It is so very hard to watch your child hurt himself so badly.

Thanks for listening and caring.
Cheryl