I was told I needed to give you all an update.

It's official. Maddie has been diagnosed with TS.

It was crazy. The day before we left Maddie woke up and had the lightest tics she has had in months! That's the way TS works - waxing and waining they call it. So I took a video clip of her tics with me just in case we needed it. We didn't. Maddie got nervous enough once the doctor came in that she started ticing more. In our town they still wouldn't have known what it was but there the doctor said her tics were "impressive". It was so nice to go someplace where they knew what they were looking at!!

They prescribed Haldol and we are giving it a try. She didn't want to go on medication but it was getting so hard for me to watch her in pain. The rage attacks that come with TS are also very hard on the whole family. The worse the tics - the worse and more often the rages. We sat down and talked about it and Maddie agreed to try the meds for a month.

I'm cutting my business way back this summer. I'm a work aholic and love my job so it is really hard for me to do, not to mention how hard it is financially to do. I guess we'll just have to tighten our belts this year. Maddie's tics have become so much worse over the last few months and I just don't know how bad it is going to get. The meds will only take the edge off - they won't make it go away. So family comes first. I normally have over 90 high school kids booked for the summer already - this year I didn't send out any advertisements. I think I have maybe 10 on the books right now. It's a little scary. I did get a shoot for the local hospital and that is helping fill a few of those spots. I just have to remember my kids need me more this year - and not worry about the book.

Maddie made her TS awareness video. I'll try and post it in here. If it doesn't work here's the link. [link]

Thanks again everyone for all your support!

Maddie's DA page My mom's DA page




Made me this great journal!