Columns

A former columnist for Huntington’s Disease News, Erin Paterson, tested gene-positive for Huntington’s disease (HD) in 2006. She’s also the founder of Lemonade Press, a social enterprise focused on empowering people through storytelling. Through writing and speaking about genetic disease, depression, and infertility, she hopes to…

I love clichés. I love to share these small, yet overly heard nuggets of wisdom whenever I can. Who cares if they prompt an eye roll or two? I use them to explain things so often that my entire family has come to expect it. When our dog, Baby…

I’m not what one would call a clean freak. I’m messy and always have been. Sometimes my mind goes so fast that I’ll put things down and forget where. I don’t mind my world being somewhat chaotic; in fact, I don’t really notice it until it’s so bad I…

An encouraging number of clinical trials are currently recruiting, or soon will be, for people affected by Huntington’s disease (HD). I recently wrote about the CAP score, a mathematical calculation that many HD clinical studies use to find participants who are at comparable points along their HD…

In 2018, my wife, Jill, was diagnosed as gene-positive for Huntington’s disease (HD). In the months leading up to her diagnosis, she’d begun experiencing depression and anxiety, as well as other HD symptoms, which started her down the long road of finding helpful medications. At…

In a recent column, I shared that I was battling a serious infection, which led to a four-day hospital stay. My main concern was about my wife, Jill, who is gene-positive for Huntington’s disease (HD), and how frustrating it was for me to be sick when it’s…

“Do you ever feel like Huntington’s disease [HD] is the villain in the movie of our lives?” my wife, Jill, asked me recently. My wife and I live in a neighborhood with many trees and little light. As I arrived home after work one day last month, darkness greeted…

I am sitting up in a hospital bed, trying to write this week’s column. I have an IV in my left arm that is attached to a bag full of antibiotics and steroids. As I start to bring my hand to where the needle is held in place by medical…

Thirteen years ago, my good friend Matt Ellison and I started to form what is now the Huntington’s Disease Youth Organization (HDYO). Matt and I both grew up with a parent who had Huntington’s disease (HD), so our mission with the nonprofit was to support, educate, and…

The other day, I heard what every husband wants to hear from his wife: “Honey, I love you, but you’re being ridiculous.” The day had started off uneventfully. It was a Saturday morning, and I woke up early to watch a soccer game on TV. The earlier the better, since…