31 Dec 2011

At home for the first time in days and it shows...

Egg x 4
Gayness
Bob
Egg x 12

30 Dec 2011

Feeling considerably better today. Good job, as we're driving home via a stop-off in West London.

Egg x 2
Ogg
Egg x 3
Mmm
Fff...
Nunnas
Egg x 2
Ball
Egg x 3
WOB!
Egg

29 Dec 2011

Feeling a tad better today. Still staying with the mother-in-law and co.

Egg
Babe
Egg x 3
Nunnas
Bob
Egg x 2
Squirrel Farts
Nod x 3
Egg
FROGS!
Bob
Nod x 2
Egg x 2

28 Dec 2011

Staying with the outlaws and very knackered...

Meat
Egg
Bob
Egg x 2
Squirrels
Egg
Squirrels
Bob x 2
Egg x 5
Nod
Bob x 2
Nod x 12
Egg x 2
Bummer
Bob
Fish
Gayness
Fish x 4
Bob
Fruit
Egg
Paunch
Balrog
Bonga
MFFF!
Fish
Initet
BOB!
Nod x 6
Bob
Egg
Ogg
Squirrels
Bob
Squirrel
Mangle
Bob
Fish

27 Dec 2011

A big journey from one end of the country to the other today, as we relocate to the Mother-in-law's house. My cold/flu continues to hang on in there....

Egg x 5
Fish
Nod
Egg x 3
Fishegg
Bob x 2
Egg
Nod
Egg x 3
Nod
Bob
Nod
EGG!
Bob
Egg x 5
Egger
Nod
Mmnnnn
Fish
MMNN!!

26 Dec 2011

Boxing Day - still at my parents' house, still not well...

Egg x 4
Fish
Fish
Egg
Egg
Squirrel Farts
Poo Cheeks
Egg
Egg
Gimmel
[nod]
Poo Chimneys
[nod x 3]
Egg x 3
Squirrel
Bob
Bog
[nod]
Squirrel
Egg
POO!
Egg
Dave
Egg
Bob

Spectacular headaches today. A 4 mile walk during the afternoon helped to calm both the headaches and the tics.

25 Dec 2011

Christmas Day....

Egg
Fish
Squirrel
Squish
Fish
Fish
Bob
Carrot Top
Egg
Squirrel
Egg x 3
Bob
Egg
Bob
Egg

Quite ill today, low energy levels, a cold which just won't go away and losing my voice.

24 December 2011

Eggy Cyril Panty Hadge
Egg
Fish
Nunnas
Egg
Egg
Bob x 7
OGRON! [loud]
Christmas Eve at my parents' house...

Nunnas
Bodge
Bob
Bob
Bob
[nod x 5]
Bodge
Bob
Wobble
Bob
Bobble
Wibbly
Nunnas
Nunnas

23 December 2011

Egg
Fish
Bob
Egg
Fish
Egg x 4
Fish
Egg
Bobob
Fish
Bob
Bob
Budgies
Trump
[nod x 3]
Bob
Squirrels
[nod]
Dung
Fish
Egg
Egg
Squirrel Dung
[nod x 3]
Fish
Bob
Loud BOB
Ogg
[oof]
Fish
Bob
Egg
[raspberry]
Egg
Bob
[nod x 3]
Bobbydavroshaft
Bob
Egg
[nod x 5]
Bobshaft
Bob
Squid Farts

22 December 2011

Egg
Smurf Cheese
Fridge
Fish Farts
Squirrel Cheese
Nunnas
Gibble
Fish
[nod x 5]
Ostrich
Bob
[very loud] BOB!
Bob
[nod x 2]

10 vocal tics whilst driving. Can't remember what they all were, although one was definitely Poo Cheese.

Bob x 7
[nod x 3]
Special
Egg
Bob
[loud] Fish
Fish
Egg
Bob

21 December 2011

Full blown unwellness, holed up in bed:

Egg
Egg
Og
Bob
Egg
Fish
[oof]
Strawberry Bottom
Egg
Egg
Fish
Egg
Egg
Eggfish
Egg
Egg
Nunnas
Space
Flobble
Elephants
Egg Roll
[oof]
Egg
Froom
Egg
Penis (the missus reckons I said this because we were due to have a visitor who is, reputedly, hung like Jupiter)
Egg
Egg
[nod]

20 Dec 2011

Baaaaad night's sleep + flu + back to work = this lot:

Egg
Fish
[nod]
Bob
[nod]
Egg
Egg
[nod x 11]
Fish
Fish
Bobshaft
[nod x 4]
Bob
Bob
[nod x 2]
Egg
[nod x 38]
Egg
Egg
Fish
Fish
Green
Spridge
Budgie
Fish
Bush
Wibble
Chicken
Splodge
Flibber
[oof]
Chicken
[nod]
Egg
Fish

19 Dec 2011

Stupendously quiet morning. Full of cold, wrapped in a duvet, reading - children entertaining themselves. Two tics:

Ffff
Nunnas

Lunchtime we drove to town. Half a dozen head nods on route. I also felt two 'fish' welling up, which I was able to surpress.


Town. Mad busy, went to a cafe and they forgot about our order. Getting stressed:

Squirrel nuts
Fish
Egg
Bob
Egg
[doesn't look too bad, but this was punctuated by at the very least 30 head nods. Proper loon stuff]

While shopping:

Egg
[nod]
Dudu
Fish
Egg
Egg
[nod]

Back home, then making dinner:

Squirrel
Bob
Smurf
[nod]
Plump
Fff
Fish

Evening:
[raspberry]
[oof]
Nunnas
Fff
Egg

18 Dec 2011

Despite having a very disturbed night, I feel better rested. Very short fuse though. Quiet initially this morning, but since I got active the tic monster has too.

Nunnas
Abumbubum...
[very big head nod at church, watching Christmas nativity]
Fish
Fish
Egg
Fish
Quid
Sheepdogs
Poo
[two big head nods]
Fruit
Brucey Bonus (I haven't watched anything featuring Bruce Forsyth since the 70s, honest!)
Fish
Egg

OBSERVATIONS:
Some way below the estimated average then. Still full of cold. Also, what I would describe as my "sugar rush feeling" has been notably absent for most of the day.

17 Dec 2011

Feeling really ill when I get up.  Slept longer than normal, full of cold, could sleep all day but need to prepare for some visitors, coming for mulled wine and mince pies this morning.

Box of frogs
Arse lemons
Mink (taking off a winter coat which I don't wear much, and which is not mink)
Egg
Egg
Wobble
Scribble
Egg
Fish

- and that's it. So, the cure must be a bad cold...or Beechams Cold & Flu powder. (Blackcurrant!)

16 Dec 2011

Slept ok, feeling tired in a different way today: proper tired, as opposed to tired with nervous energy as I often am (like yesterday).  Going to a school assembly today, then driving a friend to see somebody I've never met before.

Bob

Abumbumbumbum...

(No vocal tics during school assembly, but easily a dozen head nods)

Bob

Egg

Bob

Fish

Nunnas

Fish

...and that was it!

OBSERVATIONS:

Much of the day I spent doing things which were out of the ordinary: first time at this school's assembly; driving a friend to an unfamiliar location; meeting, eating and chatting with an unfamiliar but very nice bloke who clearly has similar interests; and driving home again.  By the time I got home I was clearly developing a full blown cold, was very tired and just wanted to sleep.  And the effects of that lot?  Very few tics today.

15 Dec 2011

Better sleep last night, no work today.


It got a bit mad before school/nursery:
Bob
Bob
Walrus Cheese
Bobshaft
Fish Farts
Eggy Trump Cheese
Spirol
Fish
Fish
Egg
Lemon Trumps
Bob
Abumbumbumbumbumbum - a little song that pops up now and again, like a tic initially, but I carry it through because it gives me some release from the feeling of nervous energy (sugar rush) that comes with tics
Bob
Egg
Egg
Egg
Bobshaft *
Fish Farts
Cloppa Castle - Looking at DVDs, which didn't include Cloppa Castle
Squirrel
[oof]
Bob
Fridgefreezers
Smurf Cheese
Lumps of Chutney
(Obviously shopping in Tesco is a bit stressful!)
Sphincter
Brucey Bonus
Wibblywobblybibblybobbly... - another tune
[squeal]
Fish
Nunnas
Squirrels
Wobble
Poo
[squeal]
Chocolates
(tea time at this point - you can tell, can't you)
[grunt]
Weed
[grunt]
Fish

NOTES:
When the grunts (I don't like that description) which I did for several years first morphed into vocal tics, a few years back now, by far the most common tic was Bob, or Bobby. In fact my missus still refers to tics as Bobs - "was that you Bobbing again?" - anyway, she sometimes used to respond to a Bob by calling back "Bobby Shafto" or "Bobby Davro" and before long I started ticking Bobshaft and sometimes Bobbydavroshaft. As you do.

OBSERVATIONS:
Seems slightly higher than average, but not all day. When I've been occupied (engrossed?) the tics have largely subsided. When out and about, or with the offspring, or when I felt the nervous sugar-rushy feeling (need words!) the tics came. Day off but overall more tired than normal, and Christmas is coming which always brings with it uncertainties/stress...

14 Dec 2011

After watching a documentary about people with Tourette's on the telly the other night, I got into conversation with somebody who I had told I have Tourette's but who had never, to my knowledge, noticed. I'm not a really bad ticker, you see, at least not at the moment, and during the course of the conversation I estimated that I currently do roughly three dozen vocal tics a day - nothing compared to those poor blighters on the telly! But then I thought, is that actually right? How do I know for sure? Was that a wildly inaccurate estimate? A few years back, when I was seriously stressed and ticking like a loon, I tried to keep a diary of all my tics. It was interesting reading, for my missus at least, who would sit there and listen to me read the lists out until she was laughing so much that she could hardly breathe. It also gave me some insight into my ticking pattern - in what situations it got worse, or better, how I was feeling at the time, and so on.

So. I have decided to keep a diary again, to establish how far my tics have really subsided, and to see whether my guestimate is correct. I've also decided to blog my tics this time round, so that you can join my missus in having a laugh. And hopefully this way, because I'm blogging, it will give me the nudge I need to keep up with my monitoring, and who knows what the information will reveal further down the line.

How am I going to do this? I haven't thought that far ahead, so initially I suppose I'm going to do what I did previously with the paper diary - it'll be a day-by-day list of vocal tics, with a few notes on my general well-being that day and other bits and bobs to give it all a bit of context. At some point I may blog about my background history, how the Tourette's has developed since I first started repeatedly clearing my throat at the tender age of 8...

So here we go.

Wednesday 14 Dec 2011.

Started noting tics down mid-afternoon, at work, so this won't be a complete list for the day. Had a really, very rough night last night, not much sleep, which usually indicates that there will be more tics than usual.

Bob

Bob

Bob

Bob

Egg

Bob

Clubfoot

Ninja Trumps

Fruit Farts

Space Walruses

A-bub-a *

Gebbles *

Egg

Bob

Walrus

A-bub-a *

Winkle Chickens

Egg

Bob

Nunnas *

Wibble

Blob

Bob

Nunnas *

Bob

Bob

Fish

Bob

Bob

Bob

Bob

NOTES:

* = nonsense

Words at work were what and where I'd expect - bob and egg, predominantly, when my guard was down (in the corridor or loo or in the street or car), with a few more head nods and blinks than normal at my desk, undoubtedly because I was tired. The words became much more bizarre at tea time, at home, as they always seem to do. Whether that is influenced by the company - two young kids and the missus - I don't know.

More to follow I imagine...