Today was a very important moment for building awareness about Huntington’s disease: the New York Times, one of the world’s most influential newspapers, ran a long page-one story about a young woman’s brave decision to be tested at age 23 (click here to read the article).
It’s rare that HD gets such attention. Most people have not heard of HD, or they have only a vague notion of it. Like a lot of orphan diseases, it just doesn’t register with people. After I recently wrote a friend a long letter about my own gene-positive status, his response referred to “Hodgkin’s disease.”
I myself have tried to bring HD to the New York Times’ attention. A couple of years ago I submitted an article about my experience with HD to the paper’s Sunday magazine and then to its science section, but I allegedly had nothing new to say about the disease. Luckily, in September of 2005 the Washington Post published an article about my story written by Dr. Martha Nance of the Huntington’s Study Group (click here to read the article).
So I was thrilled to see reporter Amy Harmon’s well-written portrait of Katie Moser. The article outlined the history of HD in Katie’s extended family, the pros and cons of testing at such a young age, and the ways in which Katie has coped with living at risk. Harmon especially captured the psychological trauma people experience before and after testing.
Like me, Katie Moser faces a very long road of wondering when and how her symptoms will start. As I did, she may someday face the difficult decision of testing her own child for the genetic defect that causes HD. I think about HD every day. It’s a lifelong curse on me and my family.
But is there really a trend towards increased testing among young people, as the article claims? The reporter cited no empirical evidence to back up this claim. If young people indeed do want to get tested more, it’s simply the result of the availability of a test for HD (starting only in 1993) and the recent appearance of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (the testing of embryos). Their parents could not even dream of these possibilities. Interviews with more young at-risk people, including those who have had children, could have shed more light on the purported new trend.
The article also did not discuss some other important facets of the HD story. Did Katie attempt to line up all of her insurance coverage before testing? Why does research on HD and other rare diseases receive so little funding when, especially in the case of HD, they could provide the key to curing other diseases? Why, in fact, is HD so little known and understood? And why does it carry such a horrible stigma?
I’ve been writing on HD for nearly ten years and reading about it even longer. I didn’t see anything new in today’s piece. The article could have really driven home the point that HD is one of humanity’s cruelest diseases. As a friend of mine observed, the article could have connected with more people had it explored HD more forcefully.
I make these criticisms because the paper gave the reporter more than ample space – some 4,700 words – to explore HD fully. According to her own video on the newspaper’s website, she spent a year following Katie’s life.
But I still commend Harmon and the New York Times for bringing valuable exposure to Huntington’s disease. This, in fact, is the paper’s second article on HD in recent months. On November 14, 2006 it ran an article that described the stark descent of filmmaker Chris Furbee and his mother into the hell of HD. You can read that article by clicking here.
I urge the New York Times and the media in general to increase their coverage of HD and related diseases and of medical research in general. Tens of thousands of American families are affected by HD, and many million more people will get Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other neurological disorders. Whether we realize it or not, we are all in this struggle together.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
Testing a new service
Dear Friends,
I now have close to 500 people who receive news of my blog via my e-mail, stophuntingtonsdisease@yahoo.com. That's a lot of addresses for me to manage, so I am thinking of joining a service that will reduce the workload of sending out so many e-mails. Such a service would also avoid my e-mails as being seen as spam or getting stuck in people's bulk mail boxes. Right now I'm testing Feedblitz. If you'd like to help me test this service, please subscribe by putting your e-mail address into the box in the upper-left-hand corner of the blog. Once I have made a final choice as to what service to use, I will notify you so that you can subscribe. The reason I'm posting this entry is because apparently the only time Feedblitz sends out e-mails to subscribers is when there is an actual update to my blog. I don't think I can send e-mails at will through Feedblitz.
Thanks for your help!
Yours in the struggle to cure diseases,
Gene Veritas
I now have close to 500 people who receive news of my blog via my e-mail, stophuntingtonsdisease@yahoo.com. That's a lot of addresses for me to manage, so I am thinking of joining a service that will reduce the workload of sending out so many e-mails. Such a service would also avoid my e-mails as being seen as spam or getting stuck in people's bulk mail boxes. Right now I'm testing Feedblitz. If you'd like to help me test this service, please subscribe by putting your e-mail address into the box in the upper-left-hand corner of the blog. Once I have made a final choice as to what service to use, I will notify you so that you can subscribe. The reason I'm posting this entry is because apparently the only time Feedblitz sends out e-mails to subscribers is when there is an actual update to my blog. I don't think I can send e-mails at will through Feedblitz.
Thanks for your help!
Yours in the struggle to cure diseases,
Gene Veritas
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Uncertainty and a steadfast spouse
The forgotten people in the story of Huntington’s disease are the spouses and potential spouses of those at risk. Practically all of the energy of the HD movement goes into finding a treatment to alleviate the suffering of the ill and preventing the onset of the disease among the at-risk. Fundraisers, publications, and meetings seldom address the pain of the caregivers-to-be.
A recent e-mail from one of my readers painfully reminded me of this reality. He agreed to let me discuss his situation but wants to remain anonymous. I’ll call him Ed.
A love story
Several years ago Ed fell in love with a woman whose mother died of HD. However, the pressures of living with her at-risk status led them to argue frequently. Ed feared that his girlfriend might someday test positive for HD. Their relationship soon fell apart. She did not believe that Ed could really love her, and Ed found it difficult to manage the huge uncertainty of a life with an at-risk person.
Recently they bumped into each other and had their first serious conversation in two years. Still untested for the disease, Ed’s friend had gone on with her life and achieved many of her goals. “She seemed really happy,” Ed wrote. “I tell you all this, Gene, because I want you to understand that she does captivate me and, if I am being honest, my life over the past two years has been boring without her.”
Ed’s friend hinted that she wanted more than friendship. Ed again became scared. “My greatest fear is that one day the woman I love will be transformed and will be unrecognizable,” he wrote. “I don’t know if I can commit to this life. More importantly, I cannot let her down again.”
Ed’s predicament is one shared by all couples in the HD community – intense love challenged each and every day by the harsh reality of a fatal brain disease. “I just feel muted by the situation,” Ed confided to me. “I can’t share my fears with the person that I want to. If we can’t discuss the situation and our fears, those fears will fester and prove insurmountable, even in the short term.”
Just today I received another message from Ed stating that they had once again broken up.
A special person
There are no easy answers for Ed or anybody else in a similar quandary. Many people break off a relationship when they learn that the other person could get Huntington’s disease, and some marriages end in divorce when the at-risk person becomes ill. Caring for a person with HD becomes an ever more trying and time-consuming process. Sometimes the stress severely debilitates or even kills the caregiver first.
Only a very special person can successfully navigate through the treacherous swamp of uncertainty presented by HD. That special quality includes more than love and commitment. It requires the ability to plan each day for the worst but to maintain eternal optimism about the hope for a treatment, a cure, or simply a delay of the disease’s onset.
I am thankful every moment that my wife is that person. We had been married for only three years when HD intruded on our lives. We did not yet have a child, so it would have been very easy for my wife to ask for a divorce. But I don’t think the thought ever crossed her mind. Somehow we knew we were together for life, and she remained loyal. For her the biggest challenge was not about deciding whether to stay with me, but learning how to adapt to a new reality and to make life as normal as possible in a highly abnormal and difficult situation.
Inner strength
My wife has an inner strength that comes in part from having grown up poor. When she was young her family had to sell their home, and many days there was no meat on the table. The worst part was the certainty that the next day would bring the same misfortune. She postponed badly needed dental treatments, and she started working in her late teens to help balance the family budget. She attended college at night while working full time.
Living on the edge of survival has prepared her to accept a lot of adversity – especially my positive test for HD – with great determination. Knowing that I will lose a good part of my income after I become disabled, she works full-time so that we can try to pay off our mortgage earlier and increase our savings. She knows that she will not be able to take early retirement and will have to see our daughter through college.
Every week she cooks a menu of healthy meals for me, and she takes on the burden of extra housework and childcare when I become immersed in writing for this blog or working as an activist for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (www.hdsa.org). Every weekend she observes me as I perform cognitive tests on the Huntington’s Disease Drug Works computer program (www.hddrugworks.org). Every year we plan together how we will donate money for HD research. Whenever she hears or reads a report about breakthroughs in neurological research, she immediately notifies me.
Right after our marriage started, our lives had taken a turn for the better. We were both establishing ourselves in our careers, and we had many exciting plans for the future.
But my wife has had to postpone or simply erase from her mind the hope that we will achieve many of those goals, for example, having a larger family. Our daughter tested negative for HD in the womb. My wife has badly wanted another child, but going through the trauma of testing another child or the expense and challenges of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (testing embryos for the disease) led us to cut off that possibility forever.
My wife has given up a lot of other dreams, like buying a summer home or moving to a less expensive city. We need to invest in her future here, because this is where she has job security and a salary that probably could not be matched elsewhere.
Worry: a constant companion
More than anything else, HD has robbed my wife of the chance to live peacefully. After so many years of struggle, she now faces the biggest challenges of her life. Worry is her constant companion. Once my symptoms commence, how will she continue to work full-time, manage the household, raise a daughter, handle all of the other tasks that I have taken care of over the years such as our financial paperwork and house repairs – and care for me? How will she and I decide when it is time for me to enter a nursing home?
As my wife said after reading a draft of this article, the worst thing about HD is its timing. It hits people in the prime of life, and it robs victims of their abilities to walk, talk, eat, and think over a period of 15 to 20 years. That is a very long time for both me and my family to endure.
We don’t talk much about Huntington’s disease these days. But HD is always looming in the shadows of our life. We should talk more about it, but we don’t. We’re trying to enjoy our lives and our daughter as much as possible before the pain begins.
Deep inside, I know my wife will prevail. She is always at my side, and she will remain there as long as possible. She’ll get by somehow. But it will be lonely and arduous, because she faces losing her closest companion and her daughter’s devoted father.
A recent e-mail from one of my readers painfully reminded me of this reality. He agreed to let me discuss his situation but wants to remain anonymous. I’ll call him Ed.
A love story
Several years ago Ed fell in love with a woman whose mother died of HD. However, the pressures of living with her at-risk status led them to argue frequently. Ed feared that his girlfriend might someday test positive for HD. Their relationship soon fell apart. She did not believe that Ed could really love her, and Ed found it difficult to manage the huge uncertainty of a life with an at-risk person.
Recently they bumped into each other and had their first serious conversation in two years. Still untested for the disease, Ed’s friend had gone on with her life and achieved many of her goals. “She seemed really happy,” Ed wrote. “I tell you all this, Gene, because I want you to understand that she does captivate me and, if I am being honest, my life over the past two years has been boring without her.”
Ed’s friend hinted that she wanted more than friendship. Ed again became scared. “My greatest fear is that one day the woman I love will be transformed and will be unrecognizable,” he wrote. “I don’t know if I can commit to this life. More importantly, I cannot let her down again.”
Ed’s predicament is one shared by all couples in the HD community – intense love challenged each and every day by the harsh reality of a fatal brain disease. “I just feel muted by the situation,” Ed confided to me. “I can’t share my fears with the person that I want to. If we can’t discuss the situation and our fears, those fears will fester and prove insurmountable, even in the short term.”
Just today I received another message from Ed stating that they had once again broken up.
A special person
There are no easy answers for Ed or anybody else in a similar quandary. Many people break off a relationship when they learn that the other person could get Huntington’s disease, and some marriages end in divorce when the at-risk person becomes ill. Caring for a person with HD becomes an ever more trying and time-consuming process. Sometimes the stress severely debilitates or even kills the caregiver first.
Only a very special person can successfully navigate through the treacherous swamp of uncertainty presented by HD. That special quality includes more than love and commitment. It requires the ability to plan each day for the worst but to maintain eternal optimism about the hope for a treatment, a cure, or simply a delay of the disease’s onset.
I am thankful every moment that my wife is that person. We had been married for only three years when HD intruded on our lives. We did not yet have a child, so it would have been very easy for my wife to ask for a divorce. But I don’t think the thought ever crossed her mind. Somehow we knew we were together for life, and she remained loyal. For her the biggest challenge was not about deciding whether to stay with me, but learning how to adapt to a new reality and to make life as normal as possible in a highly abnormal and difficult situation.
Inner strength
My wife has an inner strength that comes in part from having grown up poor. When she was young her family had to sell their home, and many days there was no meat on the table. The worst part was the certainty that the next day would bring the same misfortune. She postponed badly needed dental treatments, and she started working in her late teens to help balance the family budget. She attended college at night while working full time.
Living on the edge of survival has prepared her to accept a lot of adversity – especially my positive test for HD – with great determination. Knowing that I will lose a good part of my income after I become disabled, she works full-time so that we can try to pay off our mortgage earlier and increase our savings. She knows that she will not be able to take early retirement and will have to see our daughter through college.
Every week she cooks a menu of healthy meals for me, and she takes on the burden of extra housework and childcare when I become immersed in writing for this blog or working as an activist for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (www.hdsa.org). Every weekend she observes me as I perform cognitive tests on the Huntington’s Disease Drug Works computer program (www.hddrugworks.org). Every year we plan together how we will donate money for HD research. Whenever she hears or reads a report about breakthroughs in neurological research, she immediately notifies me.
Right after our marriage started, our lives had taken a turn for the better. We were both establishing ourselves in our careers, and we had many exciting plans for the future.
But my wife has had to postpone or simply erase from her mind the hope that we will achieve many of those goals, for example, having a larger family. Our daughter tested negative for HD in the womb. My wife has badly wanted another child, but going through the trauma of testing another child or the expense and challenges of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (testing embryos for the disease) led us to cut off that possibility forever.
My wife has given up a lot of other dreams, like buying a summer home or moving to a less expensive city. We need to invest in her future here, because this is where she has job security and a salary that probably could not be matched elsewhere.
Worry: a constant companion
More than anything else, HD has robbed my wife of the chance to live peacefully. After so many years of struggle, she now faces the biggest challenges of her life. Worry is her constant companion. Once my symptoms commence, how will she continue to work full-time, manage the household, raise a daughter, handle all of the other tasks that I have taken care of over the years such as our financial paperwork and house repairs – and care for me? How will she and I decide when it is time for me to enter a nursing home?
As my wife said after reading a draft of this article, the worst thing about HD is its timing. It hits people in the prime of life, and it robs victims of their abilities to walk, talk, eat, and think over a period of 15 to 20 years. That is a very long time for both me and my family to endure.
We don’t talk much about Huntington’s disease these days. But HD is always looming in the shadows of our life. We should talk more about it, but we don’t. We’re trying to enjoy our lives and our daughter as much as possible before the pain begins.
Deep inside, I know my wife will prevail. She is always at my side, and she will remain there as long as possible. She’ll get by somehow. But it will be lonely and arduous, because she faces losing her closest companion and her daughter’s devoted father.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)