School's out, which means that life is much easier on the TS front for the most part. The only thing that hasn't gotten easier is HRT. We missed two weeks, one week Liam was not able to go, and the next week his therapist was on vacation. We've been doing well at home so this wasn't a big deal. We had a tough time transitioning from his former therapist to HRT initially because the approach is so different. Our former therapist (who we hope to get back to when we have the HRT all figured out) does a lot of art and play therapy. Her office is filled with toys and art materials. The first appointment she ever had with Liam, she told him that he could touch anything that he wanted to touch in the office, except her desk. HRT is done in very sterile looking rooms with no distractions. No toys, no art meterials. HRT is very much right down to business, and Liam clearly does not feel as comfortable with his new therapist. That being said, he's definitely warmed to her and has opened up to her lately.
This week, we went in for our normal appointment and she started by letting us know that she had some tough news for us. She would be leaving. It's a teaching clinic and they made the new assignments for next year and she'd been sent someplace else. So we will have a new therapist. This clearly did not sit well with Liam as he does not like change. When we got going in our session we talked about how our practice was going and I mentioned that when Liam is mad at me and I tell him to use his response he looks at me and tics worse on purpose to upset me. We tried to work with Liam on dealing with this issue. Unfortunately it didn't go well. One of my biggest fears with TS is the tics where Liam hurts himself. Liam's therapist asked him what he thought he could do instead of retaliating by ticcing more on purpose because that wasn't really helpful. He said "what if I scratch myself?" And he proceeded to dig his nails into his leg and rake his fingernails up his leg. His therapist and I both told him that we didn't think that that was a really good way of dealing with it that it should be something that is calming and doesn't hurt him, but it was too late. I sat there and helplessly watched Liam make big red welts all down his leg and arms. I know that the bigger deal I made about it at the time, the worse it would have gotten. I tried really hard to show no reaction at all after my initial "I don't think that that's a good idea, let's think of something else" but I'm sure he saw how much it upset me. I know that hearing the news that he was in for a change in a therapist now that he's feeling comfortable with this one did not help this whole process along. I'm really hoping that he takes to his new therapist well and quickly because I think we're generally having some really good success with the HRT.
