Doing taxes has become too taxing for my wife with Huntington’s

If I were to ask people what’s due on April 15, most would say “taxes.” In my 15 years of marriage to my wife, Jill, I haven’t had to worry about that deadline before. Filing our taxes has been Jill’s job, as she’s always been able to read…

“Of all base passions, fear is most accursed.” — Joan La Pucelle (Joan of Arc), in Shakespeare’s “King Henry VI, Part I” Huntington’s disease has taken the lives of my dad, grandfather, and great-grandmother. My brother, Gavin, was diagnosed with it in January 2022, at the age…

The brain of people with pediatric-onset Huntington’s disease show impaired transport of blood sugar, or glucose, and low levels of a cellular machinery involved in glucose metabolism, a small study showed. Many of these abnormalities were observed in comparisons not only with adults without Huntington’s, but also with people with…

When, on a recent Friday night after I’d worked a 60-hour week, my wife, Jill, asked me if I wanted to go to breakfast the next morning, my first instinct was to say no. Instead, I said I’d love to go. The reason was simple: I love Jill…

“All body systems would be immobilized without the nervous system. It controls and regulates every bodily activity down to the workings of the tiniest cell.” — World Book Encyclopedia of Science Because Huntington’s disease (HD) damages neurons, or nerve cells, in the brain, it can cause a variety of…

The Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) has awarded grants totaling more than $2.1 million to support its Centers of Excellence, which include multidisciplinary care teams with a track record of providing exemplary care for people with Huntington’s disease and their families. A total of 57 institutions…

If you’d asked me 15 years ago — when I met my wife, Jill — if I believed in the concept of luck, I would’ve told you no. I would’ve told you that both good and bad things happen to us all and that luck was something we construct…

“Heat, like gravity, penetrates every substance of the universe, its rays occupy all parts of space.” — Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, a mathematician who studied heat conduction Our dad died in May 2020 from Huntington’s disease, and my brother, Gavin, was diagnosed with it…

Excessive CAG repeats, the genetic defect that causes Huntington’s disease, lead to processing errors and the production of unexpected proteins that form clumps and promote nerve cell death, a new study found. This discovery, according to the researchers, sheds new light on the abnormal toxic protein production seen in…

For the past four years, I’ve written something romantic for my wife, Jill, in honor of Valentine’s Day. This year is no different. Please note that what I’m about to share is imaginary. Jill and I never met in the manner in which I’m about to describe, and…