I've always said that this blog is my version of a baby book for Gavin and Emerson. I try to blog important events, dates, fun times, and even just our day to day happenings. For that reason, I feel it's relevant to blog about the last few months with Gavin.
Gavin began blinking his eyes one day, very rapidly and uncontrolled. I kind of just blew it off thinking his eyes were dry or he had something in them. The blinking continued and I started to question what was going on. I put drops in his eyes, asked him what they felt like, and just continued to watch. One day, I was sitting on the couch while Gavin was watching television. He was eating pretzels and suddenly stopped mid-bite, blinking like crazy. I was so taken back that I got it on video without him knowing. The next day, we were sitting at lunch. Gavin was sitting across from me and he began moving his shoulder up and down, not able to control himself. He continued to do this throughout lunch and as we walked through a store. He started to actually hold his arm down with his other hand. I was reading up on tics and how it's best to not draw attention to them. I just watched and acted like everything was normal. I knew, though, it wasn't normal. I was so upset. To see my child experiencing something like that, something they couldn't control, I just couldn't help but be worried. A simple tic to some, but he's my baby. It was so concerning and it consumed my mind. These tics continued and I finally decided it was time to make an appointment with the pediatrician. I wanted to be sure Gavin didn't know we were talking about him. For this reason, Casey went with me. Casey kept Gavin in the waiting room, while I discussed with the doctor what was going on. She explained that she would examine him and then run some tests. In the research I had done, I found that a lot of tics come from anxiety or stress. The weird thing was, he did them even when he was completely relaxed. It was obvious, however, that stress and anxiety made them worse. The minute he was told he would have blood taken, he began blinking uncontrollably. Making it very apparent that he was uncomfortable.
Long story short...all of his tests came back NORMAL. Thank God. That's all I can say. Thank God. He was diagnosed with simple motor tics. The doctor said if he began to have verbal tics or if they began to severely interfere with everyday life, she would refer us to a neurologist. Gavin has since stopped doing the arm tic. He will occasionally still blink in excess, but we just continue to ignore it. We hope it will just go away on it's own.
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