Deep Brain Stimulation – Update on Matovic! (From my Ticked review)

Morning!

A quick update to say that I heard from Jeff Matovic’s wife – the man who had revolutionary Deep Brain Stimulation for his severe tics. My review of his book, written with Jim Fussell, is here.

She wrote the following comment on my “About” a page. In case you only check the blog, I thought it was worth cutting and pasting as a post below. I will contact her per her generous offer and have her husband do a guest post on Happily Ticked Off.

In conclusion, let her lovely comment be an encouragement to all of you struggling with your sons’ or daughters’ tics. It is a testament to science and medicine and, most importantly, LOVE. Anything is possible.

Folk, as hard as this is, you must – WE must – fight fear of “what if” and concentrate on “what is.” Something can ALWAYS be done to help your child. And while your baby might not warrant deep brain stimulation (though thank heavens it is there if you need it) your child will always warrant full acceptance, support and encouragement for the gifts that exist well below the surface of a few tics and twitches. The heart and soul, not the body, is what we must strive to embrace at all costs. (And if you don’t always do that, because you are sad or depressed or defeated, you get to work on forgiveness. Because last I checked, you were never supposed to be the perfect parent. You are simply supposed to your child’s parent. And you are doing your best.)

NOTE FROM DEBRA 

Andrea,

I just became aware of your site because of your review of TICKED. Jeff Matovic is my husband and he and I, along with our co-author, Jim Fussell thank you for your great review of the book.

TICKED was written not only to inform others about Tourette Syndrome but also to show the world that no matter what obstacles are placed in your life that with perseverance you can achieve your goals, your dreams for this life.

1. I am happy to report that we are approaching the 10th anniversary of Jeff’s Deep Brain Stimulation surgery and he is still tic free! It truly is a miracle each morning that he wakes up and there are no tics.

   Since the success of the surgery Jeff spends his days speaking to groups and organizations about the perseverance that it took to overcome 30+ years of tics and find a doctor who was willing to take this risk with him of doing an experimental surgery. His talks are not meant to convince those with TS to have the surgery themselves, but rather to help them see that just because you do have TS doesn’t mean you can’t have a very fulfilling life.

   If you would like to speak with Jeff about his story please feel free to contact us on Facebook (for me you will need to find me under Debra Janning Matovic) or at jpm12373@aol.com.

   We also have a page on FB for TICKED. You can find it at: https://www.facebook.com/TickedTouretteSyndrome.

   Thank you for helping to spread the word about TICKED and about Tourette Syndrome awareness!!

   Sincerely,
   Debra Matovic