While Buying a Condo, I Was Reminded of the Importance of Teamwork

Last weekend, I had a bunch of newly vaccinated friends over to help me paint my new condo. My partner and I had just closed on it two days earlier, and I was excited to make the place feel like our own. We finished the entire condo in a day.

When it was over, I took a moment to look around and wonder how I had gotten so lucky. But I knew the reason: I had a good team helping me.

Finding out that I am gene-positive for Huntington’s disease has given me a little more clarity about the future. I don’t know how long I have before I start experiencing symptoms, but I do know that I want to have a life that I choose. And the life I choose includes having a home that I can call my — or rather our — own.

The process of finding and buying a home also made me realize how important teamwork is. 

My partner and I decided in March to try to buy a home. I say “try” because we knew how crazy the housing market is. Luckily, we found an amazing real estate agent who helped us find a place in only a week.

Before our search, we had researched what happens after signing an offer letter, including things like having the home inspected and applying for a loan, but the only thing that could have prepared me was to actually go through the process.

Thankfully, our real estate agent was able to recommend all of the people we would need, including the lawyer, the inspector, and even the mortgage lender. Because this was our first home, neither of us were experts in home buying. At every step of the way, we had to trust our team members and what they were telling us. 

Having this team of people working together toward a goal reminded me of what my mom’s doctors are like. My mom, who also is gene-positive for Huntington’s disease, has a neurologist, a psychiatrist, and a social worker on her team. All of them work together to provide my mother care.

While folks usually don’t get to pick their own specialists at a Huntington’s disease center of excellence, having a good team is still important. Just like when buying a home, we must be able to trust that our best interests are at the heart of what that team is doing.

My mother said she thought of it as if she were a race car driver and the members of her care team were her pit crew, as my father wrote in one of his columns.

My experience with my first Huntington’s team was a little bit different than my mother’s, and it wasn’t exactly positive. It will take me time to be fully comfortable finding people I trust. But I have plenty of time to do that, and until then, I’m glad my mom has her own team.

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