GOING THROUGH PREGNANCY WITH TOURETTE SYNDROME
When I found out that I was pregnant, I remember looking at my doctor and asking them how they thought my Tourette’s was going to factor into my pregnancy. I had a thousand questions going through my head, would my tics cause harm to my unborn child, would the jerking cause the baby to come too soon, would I do harm to myself. The answer was simple; I just had to put my faith in GOD. The doctor had not dealt with a patient before that had Tourette's syndrome, so she wasn’t sure how it was going to affect me. The other pending question was, will my child have Tourette’s? This question was not known either, because there is no way to detect if a child will or will not have Tourette’s.
My tics come and go as they please, so I have little or no control over what tic will present itself and when it will appear. My most constant tic, however, is usually muscle tensing, particularly in my stomach region, and a vocal tic, which I can usually hold if I suppress it enough. My more come-and-go tics are blinking, head shaking, another vocal tic, and sometimes neck jerking. When I found out that I was pregnant it seemed like the tic that decided to present itself the most was the muscle tensing in the stomach region (of course right?). I remember lying on my couch one night and I started having what felt like contractions, I immediately called my mom and we went to the hospital to be checked. They said that I was indeed having contractions, so they admitted me to the hospital and gave me fluids and monitored me to see if they could stop the contractions, which they were luckily able to do. This happened several times throughout my pregnancy. I literally had contractions throughout my whole pregnancy which was very scary, but at the same time I didn’t know how much of a blessing that it would actually be.
Growing up with Tourette’s and dealing with the everyday challenges that come along with it, I had learned a lot about it over the years, so I knew that if my child ended up developing the condition then I would still love him or her no matter what. I just had to keep telling myself that in the end, GOD is in charge, not me.
