Homebound: Postmortem

Yes, this is part 4 of a 3-part series.  ;-)  It has been a month now since the new semester started and Connor has been going to school full-time.  I wanted to share an “after action report” of sorts.  We’ve had a little time to consider if this was an appropriate & needed program for him and on that note, we overwhelming believe so.  The perfect storm of greatly elevated tics, the associated self-awareness, unfortunate (and powerfully imprinted) interactions with a few teachers & students, the depression & anger that has been welling up in him, the pressure of middle school, the influx of new students due to redistricting and well… just being a boy transitioning into a teenager were just too much for him and the course we were on was simply not going to be successful.

As I’ve said before, the intra-family focus, the professional counseling, and the doctor oversight & medications from his neurologist & psychologist really did make a difference and I’m glad to see him back in school.  The level of clonidine that he is on has dropped his tics by a solid 50% (a number Connor and I independently reported) and while I hate to see him dealing with any tics, it is comforting to see him NOT internally collapsing due to the debilitating self-doubt, embarrassment and depression that we saw back when school started in the Fall.  This is surely not to say that none of this affects him -- that journey is a long one, but one that I believe he is actually on now.  Connor is a deeply private fella regarding his feelings and it is truly hard to determine really how far he is on the journey.  We get to observe him and base our assessments on what we can witness ourselves.

On the negative side, I must say that the time away from formal school days (remember, he did continue to take all classes except two electives; finishing with an all A report card), and unfortunately some of the “meaning of life” lessons I taught him during this period, have only made his lack of enthusiasm -- well… let’s call it his “heavy dislike” -- for school only increase.  We are working with him on this and we do realize this surely is NOT anything special for Connor.  We know MANY others have varying levels of enthusiasm for school.  We’ll continue to work with him on this and (selfishly I realize) are grateful for dealing with something much more mainstream.

In many ways, we are back to where we were just a year or two again with Connor and TS+.  So far, Connor continues to deal with a middle of the road “textbook” case of Tourette Syndrome as expressed in the Wikipedia TS article’s characteristics section.  Note; as that article clearly states, there is no “typical” case of TS.  We continue to hope and pray that things do not get worse for him and we extend those same hopes and prayers to all dealing with TS.  Many kids and adults are suffering with much more than Connor is dealing with and continued prayers go out to them.

To recap, we are grateful to the Hospital/Homebound Program of our local school district and for the support and understanding of so many educators and staff members.  Connor really needed it and it has made a difference in his life.  We are so happy to have him back into school as despite the normal trials & tribulations many kids have with being at school, we know how important and critical this is to him at this point in his life.