Carlos Briceño,  —

Carlos Briceño is a journalist and director of communications who, through the grace of God, has been blessed with a brilliant, beautiful, and courageous wife and daughter. He currently lives in Maryland, about a half hour away from Washington, D.C., with his wife, Jill. In 2018, Jill found out she was gene-positive for Huntington’s disease at the age of 41, while his daughter found out she was gene-positive for HD in 2019 when she was 22. Jill and Carlos write about their day-to-day struggles and triumphs to share their knowledge and to let others know they are not alone. Carlos loves to evangelize, read, play soccer, and pepper his conversations with — according to family members —really bad puns. (For the record, Carlos thinks his puns are really punny and funderful.)

Articles by Carlos Briceño

As Caregivers, We Can Choose a Positive Mindset

It’s all about the mindset. I suggest caregivers work on developing a positive mindset. It makes life much easier and more joyful. For instance, waiting in line is not fun for me. But I have learned to pray while I wait. What used to be annoying is now positive.

The Turn-Negatives-Into-Positives Challenge

Thick rubber bands seem unbreakable. It takes effort to pull each end. In contrast, breaking a thin rubber band takes little effort. This is how my wife, Jill, summarized the current state of the world the other day. It seems like we all start out as…

Time Is the Best Gift to Share With Others

So … December is finally here. It’s the last month of the longest year ever, as far as I’m concerned. As I write this, it’s extremely cold and gray outside. Oh, sun, where are you? Warm weather, where are you? End of the pandemic, where are you? The holidays…

Love Is the Mission

I usually write about what life is like as a caregiver, along with my observations about how Huntington’s disease (HD) affects my family. I’ll do that in today’s column, too, but I’ve added a creative twist by writing a short play. It has two characters:…

I’m Determined to Focus on Gratitude

Two years ago, my wife, Jill, took a genetic test and discovered she has Huntington’s disease. Thanksgiving wasn’t the same that year. Last year, two events occurred that made me feel as though Mike Tyson had punched me in the gut: My daughter took a genetic test and found…

The Definition of a Caregiver

At some point in the history of mankind, someone said, “Let’s raise awareness about [topic A].” And because “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” as Oscar Wilde noted, someone else said, “Hey, if they can raise awareness about [topic A], let’s celebrate our favorite topic.” Now, January is…

Fasting as a Means of Solidarity

When my sister died in a tragic accident a year ago, grief caused me to lose my appetite. As a result, over the next two months, I lost around 13 pounds. I found myself being content with one full meal a day. Losing weight like that usually isn’t…