A little while ago I mentioned that our television station has been running ads for TS. Well, I'm pleased to say those ads are continuing, but the reason for my post today is to let you know of another program they screened last night with reference to TS.

It was one of those lifestyle programs such as Backyard Blitz.... where they do a garden makeover. In this program last night, they did a whole house makeover for the family of a teenager with TS.

The lass had a severe form of TS and had been very violent. Every room in the house had been almost destroyed with huge holes in the walls, and broken bathroom fittings, etc., etc.

She had been referred to one of our top neurologists who successfully performed deep brain stimulation on her. This neuro is just fabulous and it turned out to be the same one I was seeing for MS, before we moved states a while back...... and he's certainly the best I've ever seen. (I've even considered flying interstate just to see him, he's so good). He's also a nice person, and you don't often get that! It was so good to see him on TV talking about this.

Since having the deep brain stimulation surgery, all this girl's violent behaviour has stopped. She still has tics, but none of the violence that they had shown earlier in the program, and they did show some of her violent behaviour which was recorded prior to the surgery.

It was so wonderful to see such a huge change in this lass and her family, and I truly hope that many Australian's saw what this girl and her family had been through.

I'm sure it's probably not for everyone, and I wouldn't want to falsely get any TS sufferer's hopes up, but I did want to let you know what they'd achieved.

I commend Australian television stations for highlighting this condition, and increasing public awareness. Hopefully by showing more programs like this one, fundraising might become easier as time goes by, and that can only benefit each person with TS in the long run.

Oh...... they ripped out the whole interior of their house and rebuilt the house interior from scratch, and they refurnished it as well. Gave the family money in trust funds for their two children, and completely restored the vintage car the father had in the garage, but never had time to work on.

What a wonderful feel good program it turned out to be.

thanks Koala...I was hoping to find a link to this program but no luck.
I did find this...http://www.tourette.org.au/tsaa_video.php

The show was called Domestic Blitz and it was shown on WIN TV.

I've just done a search and found these links relating to last night's program : http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...G=Search&meta=

I'll go through them and see if I can find a good one for you all.

I checked out that link you gave Alffe, and it's another good one from the Australian TS Society.

Here's a link that Curious searched out and gave us about the TV ads in Oz that I was talking about earlier.

These ads have been running for quite some time now, and I'm rather proud of our small local network for running them.

I've learnt so much about other neurological conditions since I joined NeuroTalk, and TS is just one of them. I keep on researching and I keep on learning.

You know Australian TV is a lot more progressive than here in the states.
Lara used to post programs like Four Corners...about the people who had
made the decision to end their lives and they do not consider it suicide.

We never have programs like that and I wonder why.

*grin...you know me and wondering.

I'm not sure my last post made any sense to you Koala...

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/conte...7/s1914206.htm

I know of a number of DBS TS patients here in the US
very drastic measure tho and because of the inherent risks not a commonly used treatment.

I am glad that young lady got relief from it. violent tics are not the norm for TS but can be totally debilitating for those who have them

Thank you Chemar. They did explain that it was a big risk procedure, and that's why I added the following :

I was just so pleased to see how this lass was helped, that I wanted to share it with you all.

Hi Koala...

For some reason all the new posts have only shown up on my computer this morning, don't know why?

Anyway, that was a really beautiful show about Bianca. All the tradesmen who gave their time and supplies free was amazing. They asked one tradie what they thought it had cost him and his company {not a big company} and his estimate was around $120,000.
And friends of the family said how alot of them weren't even aware of how bad they had it. They'd never whinged yet were always there to lend and ear and to help others.
The father is a policeman, and well liked at that.
Yes she still tics a bit, but nothing to what she had. It would have been very exciting for her so maybe that was responsible. I'd be interested to know what her tics are like now.

Also, as they said in the 60 mins show a couple of months ago, the parents were going to reinforce the house with steele... now she's better they didn't need to.

A really lovely story. And when you see the shots of her {with all of her hair} before her surgery, she is a really beautiful looking girl, isn't she?

Lyn.