A Family Tradition - a Column by Carlos Briceño

Last month, I walked into our kitchen to find what looked like a crime scene. Blood drops dotted the counter, and my wife, Jill, stood at the sink with bandages wrapped around several fingers, laughing as she rinsed off our newly sharpened knives. My heart sank. My first thought wasn’t…

The other evening, my wife, Jill, and I were watching a YouTube show that explored how people cope with loss. As the narrator was describing the seven stages of grief — shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, and hope — Jill clicked the pause button. In our years together, especially…

Intrusive thoughts used to feel like my wife Jill’s own private crime scene, especially after she was diagnosed as being gene-positive for Huntington’s disease. As she describes it, they were the kind of thoughts that no one warns you about, including sudden flashes of worst-case scenarios, images of…

The women in my life — my wife, Jill, and our daughter, Alexus — are the kind who can do absolutely anything they set their minds to. Both would call themselves feminists, not just in words but in the way they live: taking on challenges, speaking their minds, and refusing to let…

Rare Disease Week at the end of February reminded me of the time when my wife, Jill, attended a rare disease advocacy panel several years ago. When she arrived home afterward, she was visibly frustrated. As someone diagnosed with Huntington’s disease and as a fierce advocate not only…

Last October, I wrote about a potential gene therapy for Huntington’s disease, an illness my family is very familiar with, as my wife, Jill, and daughter, Alexus, are both gene-positive. The experimental treatment is called AMT-130. According to uniQure, the therapy’s developer, top-line data from…

Several years ago, at a family reunion, I discovered something remarkable about my wife Jill’s approach to difficult conversations that has stayed with me ever since. This discovery has become even more important as Jill deals with the challenges of being gene-positive with Huntington’s disease (HD). At the reunion, Jill…

If there’s one thing Huntington’s disease (HD) has taught me and my wife, Jill, who is gene-positive with the illness, it’s that rest isn’t a reward; it’s a necessity. Between the disease’s relentless advancement, the daily logistics of symptom management, and the invisible emotional toll, we sometimes forget that…

For years before her 2018 diagnosis with Huntington’s disease (HD), my wife, Jill, worked with children at a school. One of her fondest memories is of seeing shy children find their voice thanks to a teacher’s encouragement. “All they needed,” she said, “was for someone to say to them,…

When a building catches fire, most of us instinctively move back. We watch from the sidewalk, hoping the flames die down, grateful for any distance between us and the danger. Firefighters are different. They hear the alarm, size up the risk, and move toward the heat, knowing there are no…