hey hazel(garden girl), i'm not familiar w/ a tens unit. will ask doc about it. tanx!
re: gluco/msm. i've used for a few years now. no problem. not allergic to shell fish.
itching is neuropathy based. i think- as well as moss. because it only comes after the burning sensation(after the neck tics) and it isn't something that is an reaction. have kept close observation.

sorry to hear about your tics but glad the tens unit helps!

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mrsd! i love salonpas. gosh, i need to tell you about it. my grandma's(maternal)
2 major remedies when i was a child was salonpas and tiger balm. two of her brothers and cousin went to japan to become doctors (during the japanese occupation of china and one of them ended up working at the pharm the developed salonpas. so it was common in my household when i was growing up. and i love the smell of them. reminds me of my childhood and grandma.

just recently found it in the states in wal-mart a couple of years back and have been actually using it on my neck and else where (you should see my salonpas days where moss would laugh cause i have it almost everywhere i ache and would ask her to place them on my back. i literally would use about 15 patches at one time on some days.

but never on my knuckles...didn't think of that. then i read your response and tried it. the patch would fall off. so i cut off a glove and now have it over the salonpas. it is helping some! thanx for recommending it for my knuckles!

will look out for the ones with 6% methyl salicylate in them. i like drugstore.com so maybe they'll have something there.

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hey cheri, i have a wonderful chiro but it's been awhile since i'd seen him. he's into functional medicine also.

i think after my visit w/ the doctor. whom i suspect will then direct me to see a spine specialist, then get x-rayed, then...blah blah blah...then, i think i'll pay a visit to my chiro just to adjust my back. i have been developing a lower back tic as of late lol

if i put my verte bra on, do you think the doc would think i am sexy? lol j/k

glad it all worked out for your son. always so happy to hear about success stories.

wanted to make a note for new parents and tsers so i don't scare them for while the ts itself isn't hurtful. the repetition of the tics can really be annoying and hurtful. but that's only in extreme cases.
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lara, funny thing you said about scaring me a little...

i am usually not scared and i think i was actually a bit scared when i posted this...guess there is a part of me that is in fear that i would lose the use of my hand...

and it's funny just recently, i have been going through a renaissance of sorts.

been writing, drawing, and secretly practicing piano again recently and finding myself a bit more...and then, this started to happen. guess i had another "george" moment where i felt like, oh, what now? just when i got my butt in gear to do something, something else is happening again.

but know that it's a wonderful life and that i have nothing to complain about...

wonderful wife, donna reed, i mean, moss (gosh, she really is a lot like donna reed! lol)

have great wonderful friends. you all....my gosh, you all have given me so much...and these responses have warm my heart so...

i really am lucky and these are good reminders of that...

moi taking off the blinders...

(it's a good thing that i learned to reaquaint and draw w/ my left hand few years ago. and actually, i'm naturally left handed and i discovered that i can write backwards easily. neato, eh? lololol)

the stress ball didn't help because i would end up punching myself with a whole fist vs soft landings.lol.

let me see if i can described the tics of the right hand. at times, it is a simple rubbing the face with the fingers. those are my favorites. lol

then, there are the jabbing ones where either index finger or middle finger pokes me right on my mandible. then either my mandibles hurt or my fingers get jammed. and sometime they are directed at anything that is to the right of me. so sometimes moss gets jabbed. lol but the worst times is when i'd jab a wall or a cabinet or something hard...that's when it really hurts. I really feel for the walls and the objects that were hurt by my jabbing and i had to apologize..ya know? lol

the worse ones are the punches. i punch right ON the knucles. index and middle knucles to be exact...usually in the air but when it's on the face and an object, that's when I start feeling guilty for abusing the objects.

w/ that said, i have been thinking that the origination of these doesn't start from my hand but my neck. have a feeling that it is related to my neck jerks. am wondering if i have that under control that it would help alleviate the hand symptoms.

the neck collar, funny you should mention that. i was looking on line w/ moss the other day to see if we can find a more solid one to help.
the ones i used to wear would work for a few days, but then my sweat and the amount of force of tic would wear it out so quickly that they just didn't work anymore. those foam ones were too expensive to replace every few days...so kinda have gave up on those and just relying on yoga and tai-chi. which does seem to help.

but am going to invest in a more expensive neck brace with rigid plastic along with chin support...what do ya think?

hey, do you remember when you and birdude asked me to get bo-tox done? I was hoarse for years and barely understandable? LOL and also developed that stiff neck to the right? and don't want to talk about what they found when they went to inject it. but glad they did and now am 100% johnny carson free.

anyways, monkey suggested bo-tox and I actually have been thinking about it. and hopefully they don't find any -oma this time. lol
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...and alpho and hazel and thanks to the pms and emails, dear folks...

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thank you all for all your advices and inputs. i hope others out there that has similar to what i have will see the awesome advices and inputs that you dear folks gave.

my own question/concern now is how much my spine has been damaged. i think that's the part that scares me. maybe why i haven't been to the doctor. but i will make an appt tomorrow. i promise.

it's funny how i really haven't been thinking about TS these past years. think i have "moved on" from it. and now, i am actually reading up on it again...weird, eh?

my biggest concern is that i might not be able to perform the finger/hand puppet shows anymore for the kids. lololol

might have to do a leftliloquy...

thanks a bunch, folks. this reply took me almost 30 minutes. urrrg...frustrating when i can't type fast.

i type almost as fast as i think and typing like this makes me lose my thoughts as soon as i finish a sentence, i forget what the next is. lol. guess add contributes to that also...

((((((big hugs)))))) and thanks, everyone...i'm going to be fine or deal w/ it one way or another...won't let it defeat me. heckit, i might become the $6.00 man (6 million dollar man might be pushing it, $6.00. definitely. lol)