Help In The Fight to Cure HD!!!
I bet most of you are wondering what HD is. Huntington's Disease (HD) is a degenerative brain disorder, which robs a person of their emotional, intellectual and physical capabilities. It usually strikes in your mid thirties, but there are people who develop it later on or earlier in life.Both my father and uncle have HD and there are 13 people in my family at risk. My dad was officially diagnosed about 10yrs ago and he's 61. My dad now is mostly confined to his bed, is in diapers, and he is on a feeding tube permanently. In March of 2003 he was put into the hospital for severe dehydration and while there he had a swallowing test done. They told him he needed to have a feeding tube put in because all of the food he was swallowing was going into his lungs because of the swallowing problems caused by HD. If my dad didn't have it put in they said he would live only about a month because his weight was so low and he would develop pneumonia because of the food in his lungs. He chose to get the feeding tube put in and he has had it for over 2yrs now. His speech is also horribly slurred. My uncle was just diagnosed with it in December of 2002. His symptoms are mild and hardly noticeable. People with HD experience uncontrollable twitching movements of parts of the body, thought process is slowed down and there are many other things along with HD. The one amazing thing about HD is that within a family no one has it the same way. A child of a person with HD has a 50% chance of inheriting the disease. There is presymptomatic testing available to let you know whether you will get the disease in the future. I decided to be tested. I started in Sept. of 2002 and got my test results on March 21st 2003. I found out that I am gene positive for Huntington's Disease. This means I will develop the disease later on in life.
Currently there is no cure for HD.
I work tirelessly to help raise money for the local Huntington's Disease Society Of America NJ Chapter and money for research. If you can please check out the below links and maybe help out the organization. It's important for the families and the future generations that will have to deal with this devestating disease.Huntington's Disease Society Of America OTHER LINKS
Huntington's Disease Advocacy Center
  Playing guitar at the Huntington's Disease Society of America Convention June 11, 2004 If you'd like to ask me any questions or chat please send me an email.
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