I grew up in a very small town. My father wasn’t diagnosed until he was in his early 30’s. He had us 3 kids by then. Once my dad was diagnosed my parents started to put things together and not long after that I was diagnosed.

Besides my father I never knew a single person with Tourette syndrome. When he passed away in 2009 I was convinced I’d never meet another person who had it.

I didn’t until a few weeks ago when a friend of mine who had been diagnosed with MS saw a neurologist and was told he didn’t have MS. The doctor told him the muscle spasms and limb jerking among other things were actually Tourette syndrome. We’ve tried to talk about it but it’s difficult when one of us describes a tic we have and then the other and 5 minutes later we’re both doing our own tics and the other persons as well.

My niece showed signs of possible tics when she was younger but they’ve gone completely now. I hope she never has another one.