THE SHADDOX BOYS

Jacob and Elijah Shaddox are brothers. Jacob is 21 years old and just moved into an apartment with his girlfriend. He graduated from a technical college with an Associate's degree in Computer Maintenance. He works for a school district as a computer technician. Elijah is almost 18 years old. He is hearing impaired, has Tourette Syndrome, OCD and ADHD. He is a junior in high school. Elijah lives with his mom Mary and her wife, his stepmom. Mary has a bachelor's in deaf education and a masters in special education, and is an educational diagnostician. Life is always changing and this blog has chronicled many of these changes and will continue to do so!






Friday, March 15, 2013

MORE TICS!

OH MY OH MY, those darn tics! Elijah is just making all kinds of noises! I emailed his teacher and two principals tonight giving them a heads up. He is out of school on Monday, but the holiday is over then and back to school on Tuesday. I hate to say it, but the tics were on my last NERVE today.(Hence the cat picture, we love cats!) This may be totally TMI and gross, so please skip ahead to the next paragraph if needed....but one of his tics is SNORTING. He blows his nose out as hard as he can with no Kleenex. He will do it several times in a row. I know this is a tic, but it is a gross and unhygienic tic. I gently inform him that it is not very NICE or CLEAN to have this tic and to try to stop. He will for a while and then there it is again!

I warned the school about this tic in particular, because it is so gross. It also looks very purposeful. I think sometimes they forget he has Tourettes and that means tics. They wax and wane and you just never know when they will hit hard. Elijah has a status sheet that comes home everyday with him, and sometimes there is a note that he was making annoying noises that bothered other students. WELL DUH, might we assume they are tics and keep an eye on them. Might you even ask him if they are tics, because he doesn't lie(I wrote about this in another post, one teacher was just SO SURE that Elijah's cussing was a tic. She assured me it was. I asked him and he admitted he was just saying the words and not a tic....so if he won't lie about that, then why lie about other tics?). I know Tourettes is hard to understand, but I wish his teacher would try to remember that! He doesn't get in trouble, but sometimes the more you ask him to stop the more he will tic. I wanted to give the school a gentle reminder and I suggested they have a plan in place JUST in case these TICS do annoy other kids. Asking him to stop his tics, is like asking someone to stop a sneeze. They can maybe hold the tic in for a bit, but it will come OUT at some point!

Hopefully this phase will pass and things will calm down. I know if it drives me crazy, it must drive him crazy. Tomorrow is another day, right?

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