THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2007
Preschool Teacher Handles Life's Challenges With Positive Attitude
By DENISE FLEISCHER
Lifestyle Editor
Dianne Kuehn is a teacher at First Congregational Preschool in Des Plaines. She is a wife and the mother of three children.
Kuehn has also dealt with Tourette Syndrome since she was five years old. But it doesn't run her life.
Kuehn's parents believed her childhood eye squinting was a nervous condition. They were also concerned that watching TV was a problem. Next came a visit to the doctor for a professional opinion, which led to the belief that it was Saint Vitus Dance, a neurological disorder characterized by purposeless, rapid, involuntary movements, emotional lability and muscular weakness, according to the Diseases Database.
"My parents asked me if I wanted to seek professional counseling. By then I was 10 to 12 years old," said Kuehn. "In seventh grade, the kids in my science class asked the teacher if I was okay. A couple of teachers came together and asked the same thing. They cared enough to question it."
"I wasn't diagnosed until 1978, at the age of sixteen," said Kuehn, a 45-year-old Des Plaines resident. "It really wasn't heard of very much in the 1970s. Everyone was just beginning to learn about it and a local Tourette Syndrome chapter began about that time in this area."
My mom read an article in the newspaper, when I was a sophomore at Maine West, about a kid who had many of the same tics that I had," added Kuehn. "She began recognizing the symptoms. She took me to the doctors that were recommended and we were so happy to finally find out what was happening to me."
The doctors informed Kuehn she had Tourette Syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by tics - involuntary, rapid, sudden movements or vocalizations that occur repeatedly in the same way, according to the Tourette Syndrome Association, Inc.
The local Tourette Syndrome chapter, which was located in Skokie at the time, recommended a visit to Rush Hospital in Chicago for observation.
"And that was it. They diagnosed me and I chose not to go on medication," Kuehn said. "I felt the side effects from the medication were harder to deal with than the symptoms. So I just continued on. I went to Oakton Community College and married my high school sweetheart. We've been married for 22 years. Our children are Elizabeth, 17, Tony, 15 and Jimmy, 11."
Kuehn has been a preschool teacher for six years now. Her students ask her what she is doing when the movements start. She tries to put it in simple terms and finds they accept her situation.
"Although it's a struggle sometimes to make it through the day because of the pain 40 years of ticcing has caused my body, I still have enough energy to take care of my family with three children and teach the preschoolers," Kuehn stated. "I also spend a lot of time volunteering. Some of it for my youngest son's school, and some for Tourette Syndrome."
When Kuehn was younger, she was a professional Hawaiian dancer. Dancing helped keep her tics under control.
"When you concentrate on something like dancing, the brain seems to override the tics. Many people with Tourette Syndrome have gone on to excellent careers. It doesn't hold you back, you just have another hurdle to jump over."
"I'm very content," she said. "Things have worked out well for me. My friends see me as having a very positive attitude. I don't let the Tourettes slow me down."