A Family Tradition
— Carlos Briceño

The first time I met Jill’s father was interesting. I hadn’t met someone with Huntington’s before, but Jill had told me all about it. Huntington’s was a movement disorder, and she had a 50 percent chance of inheriting it. I researched Huntington’s before meeting Jill’s father, but seeing the…

We live in a golden age of communication with many ways to talk to each other — email, text, and if you’re old like me, by phone. We have many chat choices, but I want to focus on one aspect by asking you a question: How do you end conversations…

I put my car in reverse and looked at my wife, Jill, in the back seat, trying valiantly to stay positive. I looked at my daughter, Alexus, in the front seat. She looked like she’d just lost her best friend, but she was talking and acting like everything was fine.

Some things that my wife, Jill, handles — such as paying the cable bill, for example — are tasks that I need to know how to do. Huntington’s disease eventually will affect her neurologically, but not for some time. It’s not ideal, but at least we have time to…

My wife and I are fortunate to have health insurance, which pays for some of our medical bills, but not all of them. My eyes glaze over when I hear words like deductibles and copays. I don’t understand insurance, and I don’t really want to. Jill has always taken care…

I recently experienced two occasions of complete helplessness. The first involved my dog, Baby Girl. She has big ears, a normal characteristic of cocker spaniels, which often get infected. The combination of infection and a buildup of earwax sent Baby Girl and me to the veterinarian. Baby…

Caregiving is an honorable position because it involves a lot of love. It also includes questions that begin with, “What if?” As you may know, my wife was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease last year. Right now, life is “good.” I put that word in quotation marks because her symptoms…

My wife and I don’t argue often. Here’s why: When we started dating, she shared with me her brilliant idea of a happy marriage. Jill asked me, “Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” I often choose happy. As my family knows, sometimes I…

Bear with me as I make an analogy. It’ll make sense in a moment. My wife, Jill, now sees genetic testing as the equivalent of a GPS. When you need to find out what illnesses run in your family, all you have to do is turn it on. Once…

We can all agree that healthcare is not perfect. Even with insurance coverage, a trip to the doctor can be expensive. Travel to and from appointments can be time-consuming and costly, especially for someone with a disability. My wife, Jill, was diagnosed with the Huntington’s gene, just like her father,…

Zombies, spiders, losing your job. What is your greatest fear? Mine used to be drowning, but not anymore. My biggest fear now is losing the woman I love and adore to Huntington’s disease (HD). Over the last year, our family has had its ups and downs. The gene-positive diagnosis of…

Have you ever been on a plane with a couple and their small child? You hope the child falls asleep or, at the very least, behaves. At some point during the flight, it’s not uncommon for children to whine and fidget, cry and hit the seat, or insist on getting…