Friday I went to the aspergers group at the special ed school I am working with to show them my documentary. I gave them the whole spheal on what Tourette's Syndrome is, asking for their participation and such first. They were all very surprisingly knowledgeable about Tourette's and knew about both mother tics (which they described as twitches) and vocal tics (which they described as sounds. I was expecting the "oh that's when you swear a lot" response, but did not get that at all which made me super happy. I then asked if they had seen Tourette's on TV. I was expecting south park, duce bigalo, or tourettes guy since they were all middle school students but to my surprise they only mentioned James Durbin from American Idol and Front of the Class. Wow! I think there is hope for our youth! They were all very interested and great kids! One of the boys, Johnny, has eye tics, mouth tics, and neck tics. He does not have a diagnosis of Tourette's but my best guess is that it is a side effect from meds or a transient tic disorder or chronic motor tic disorder. He does have an aspergers and ADHD diagnosis though. He's one cute kid but sure can be a handful! I am looking forward to working with Johnny and his classmates this spring for my senior project. The sad thing though is that I wasn't able to get the documentary to work. The school blocks youtube and the files I had on a usb drive were not compatible with the teachers mac. She told me not to worry about it and that we would reschedule. I am going to upload the documentary to something called teacher tube which the school does not block and then show it to them at another one of their after school club meetings. It was disappointing that the documentary didn't work, and I was kind of frustrated about it, but we'll work something out with this teacher tube thing.
Speed Racer and I went out again today. I drove this time because his dad had to use the car that he uses to pick me up in. We went to a diner and then to get ice cream. I gave him his very late valentines day present. I was just glad to get it out of the house because those chocolates have been so tempting to eat! But I didn't eat them! Tuesday I will be talking to a class of grad students about Tourette's per the request of my neurologist who teaches the class and is giving a big lecture that day on Tourette's Syndrome. Wish me luck!
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