Tourette's Syndrome

From an early age, Jazz exhibited what we started calling "ticks."  As an infant people asked us how we taught a baby how to wink.  They thought it was incredible, we thought it was sad because we knew the truth.  The movement was one she could not control and would happen constantly.  There were even times when her entire face would be scrunched up on one side and look as if it was going to be swallowed into her eye socket.  It then moved into her hands in which her hand would repeat the same motions over and over again.  There were times we would watch her hold her hand down and smack it so she could try to eat with out flipping her food into lap.  Then the vocal ticks started.  She would make the same sounds and movements with her mouth over and over until we would all have headaches.  It was years before she was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome.  

Here is a video to help you better understand what we were seeing in Jazz that lead us to the neurologist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPmpIY7XJVE

Now like most of America, we thought that this syndrome consisted of people blurting out cuss words uncontrolably.  However, this is not the case.  It consists of uncontrolled movement patterns and odd vocalizations, including cuss words.  However, since Jazz is missing most functions in her frontal lobe (the section of the brain that serves as our filter or judgement system), she happens to be one of those people who will cuss at any moment without thought about the context or environment she is in.  Then the Tourette's will kick in and she will get stuck on a repeat pattern of the word.

Rather than doing this when upset or surprised... 

Jazz does this... 

Needless to say, we have had some pretty awkward moments in public due to the conflict occuring between the damage in her brain due to her shaken baby syndrome and the affects of the Tourette's Syndrome.  She will scream at us calling us names if we have told her no to something she really wanted at the store, or at the dogs if they do something naughty, or one of our favorites: the stupid head incident.

Jazz was in a pre-kindergarden program when she was 5 years old.  A little boy she was playing with at recess came up to their teacher crying because Jazz had kicked him.  When asked about it, Jazz informed the teacher that, "He was a stupid head who took a toy away from her because he was a stupid head."  So, to teach him a lesson she kicked him (frontal lobe damage affect) and began calling him a stupid head over and over again (Tourette's Syndrome affect).  Both children had to apologize to each other, the boy for taking the toy and Jazz for kicking him.  Her apology was short and sweet: "I'm sorry stupid head."  The teacher had to turn away so they would not see her burst into laughter.  To this day, we all refer to people who annoy us as stupid heads.  And each time we that teacher, she still laughs and welcomes us as stupid heads.

Jazz has a lot to over come in her life and nothing has come easily to her over the years.  It seems every time we turn around, a new syndrome is bursting forth into our lives.  Despite the hard times we have all had, it is important to every once in a while not take life too seriously and to see the humor in a person following you around the house saying "sh*#" over and over again because she cannot find her favorite shirt.

Much Love!