Okay, I am now ready to start blogging again! I took a little break from blogging this past week because my parents were out of town, my dog is sick, and I'm on spring break so there is really not much going on to blog about. Now things are starting to get back to normal, except for my dog who is sick. We originally thought she had a urinary tract infection but now we know it's more than that. She is acting just fine, but there is tissue and blood in her urine and the vet doesn't know what is wrong just yet. He is going to send out the sample for testing and give her an ultrasound and hopefully we will know more then. I really hope she is okay because I love her so much and all of my family does too. My grandma's dog has cancer and only has about 2-8 months to live which is hard enough to deal with, It would be just awful for something serious to be wrong with my dog too. My poodle is a part of my family and I am so attached to her. We will get her ultrasound done on Monday and will get the test results back then too, so I hope to know what is going on by then.
Besides that I wanted to blog about something more Tourette's related, lol. When I went to interview the Tourette experts for my documentary, the Doctoral Fellow who both has Tourette's and researches it mentioned to me that she was going to be starting a research study for people with Tourette's ages 18 and older. She asked me if I was interested and if I would be willing to be a part of the research study when it was all ready and of course I said yes! So last week she got back to me and told me that the study was all ready to go and I let her know that I was still interested. So....I am all signed up to be part of the study! There are two parts of the study, the behavioral testing and the MRI scan. I am set up to do the behavioral testing part on April 4th and the MRI scan part on April 7th. During the behavioral testing part there will be pencil and paper tests, verbal response tests, and questionnaires. I am a bit worried for the MRI scan because I am not sure how long I will be able to stay still. I'm sure they will be understanding though considering this is is Tourette's study, lol.
Anyway, besides a bit of apprehension about the MRI scan, I am excited to spend more time with the doctoral fellow who has TS (because she is just the kind of person who is really awesome and intelligent and who you want to get to know better) and I am also excited to get pictures of my brain! I've always wanted to see my brain. And of course I am excited to be helping neurologists and researchers to learn more about Tourette's. The more that is known about TS, the more tolerance and acceptance there will be for those with TS.
So, I will definitively blog about how both parts of the study go in the next week or two! In the mean time, I have one more week of spring break and I am going to take advantage of the extra sleeping and relaxing time!
Sam has had many MRI's due to spinal cord issues and surgery so again, she has taken them often. Every place has been very good - she could take breaks at any time she needed. Sometimes she was so determined to get through it that 45 minutes would go by with out any tics.. they always applauded her but as you may know, holding back tics often made for a difficult evening SO I am proud of you and excited for you and hope they find something soon!!!!!
ReplyDeleteOh spinal cord issues and surgery do not sound fun. Glad every place has been so good with Sam! Yes, I know very well how hard nights can be after holding back tics. I am amazed that she got through 45 minutes of the scan without any tics! Do not think I will be able to do that! The researcher explained to me that the imaging was going to be done in intervals of 5 minutes and that after every 5 min interval she would tell me when I could move, so I could get all my "wiggles" out before the next imaging portion. This MRI screening was obviously designed for people with Tourette's, lol. I am very excited for the study! :D
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