Neurologist

On Wednesday last week the boys and I took a day trip to Boise for Camden to see a Neurologist. About three years ago we started Camden on some allergy therapy shots. The goal was to build an immunity so his allergies weren't as bad as they usually are. About 3 months into them we noticed he started to have facial ticks. Ticks that weren't there before. We decided to stop the allergy shots to see if that helped and it did. They went pretty much all away. Fast forward to August this year I scanned in a consent for allergy drops. They're done at home at a lower dosage so we decided to give them a try. Before we started we let the doctor know what happened last time and told him if they started again we were going to stop. A month or so into the drops they started up again. The fun thing with this is no doctor wants to be the reason they started, so they just told me there isn't an correlation and is can't be their drops. I don't think the medicine did this, but there definitely is something happening around the allergy therapy and his ticks. The ENT referred us to a neurologist after he saw the videos I took. Of course the appointment was a month away, so we got to think about what it could be for that long of time. Camden wanted Beck to come to Boise with us, so we left that morning and went up. I hate driving on the freeway, so most of the way up I was nervous; I was better on the way home though. They had us fill out a questionnaire about Camden which is the first thing the doctor looked at. I showed him the video then he asked if his dad had ticks at all of if a female in his family had OCD. I said I say I'm OCD. I don't have to touch something so many times but I do need clean. mess gives me stress and anxiety. I told him I'm better as an adult, like I can try and stay calm, but it still bugs me. If there is something left out and I see it, I can see it wrong in my head until it's fixed. The he asked how good of grades Camden got, I put he was above average and is especially good at math. Camden's goal this year is for all A's. Then he asked about piano, is he above average in that, and being the mom I am I said yes, I think he excels in piano. He gets it easy like I did when I was younger. He the said Camden is perfectly normal. When kids grow up girls tend to be OCD and boys get ticks. He said the grades especially math, being good at piano and the fact I'm OCD is textbook for ticks. He doesn't think ticks are bad (unless they interfere with his quality of life) they're just the bodies way of expressing what's going on. I get a high of sorts from cleaning. When the house or something is organized, it's the best feeling to me. Camden gets that from good grades and playing well. His brain releases all of those hormones and since he is so young and small the extra come out in tick. He told Camden his brain does naturally what some people pay lots of money to go on drugs. So when Camden does well he till have a tick from that. It also is the same on the other end. When you are scared or stressed your body releases adrenaline and other hormones which in Camden comes out in a tick because so much is released. Going back to the shots, he was always scared to get a shot, who wouldn't be. This year we moved and he started school again and is putting stress on himself to get good grades. I made him go ask someone about trading a pop and before he went I noticed his eyes went crazy. Looking back now we can see how much this makes sense. It's something that should subside when his brain is fully developed around 19-21. He may still get a little nervous tick, but nothing like he does now. Some reason the boys ticks go away but girls OCD doesn't. He said he can put Camden on medication to stop them, but he really doesn't see a need, unless it is a quality of life sort of thing. He told Camden and us to think of ways to stay calm and not over think things. He told him to get lots of rest and make sure he eats because lack of those will make them worse. The whole appointment was fascinating to me. Just how the brain is working and how just a few things on paper a doctor can tell what is up. Thanks to Brad he has allergies. Thanks to both of us he is good at math and thanks to me he has ticks. We are just happy its nothing major and that the appointment was about as easy as it could have been.

After we went to Tucanos for lunch and the mall to pop hunt. All in all it was a really good day. A weight was lifted off us knowing that Camden is just an over achiever, and that's not a bad thing.

One of the videos of ticks.