Joey's blog: "Joey Carlton"

The Disease Joey Carlton This is a story about a little boy. I will not tell you his name, but I will say that I know him very well...better than anyone else knows him. On the day that this story takes place, he was at a nursing home, I believe...or it may have been a funeral home, I'm not sure which, and I can't recall the name of the nursing home or funeral home, but neither can the little boy, who was, on the day that this story takes place, seven years old. The reason he was where ever he was was to say goodbye to his grandmother, who was still alive, but dying, none the less. She was about fifty-four years old, but she looked about ninety-four. He had never liked visiting his grandmother, because she scared him. His grandmother couldn't talk; she could only moan. And she was always twitching about madly, all over the place, saying, "Aaaghuuughaaaaagheeehaghugh." His grandfather told him that she hadn't always been like this, and that she had a disease that made her act like this. And the little boy was; quite frankly, glad that this would be the last time that he saw her, though he was also sad to be losing his grandmother. At the time, this little boy had no idea what was really happening and what would soon happen. He became interested in the caged bird, pretending that it was a monstrous winged beast, trying its hardest to get out. But let's skip a few years. Let's fast-forward and go to when this boy was fifteen. He was more mature, developed, and head strong, now, and he knew far more about what his grandmother had died of, because now, his father had it, too, and he was dying--he was to die before he graduated from high school. And this teenager began to discover the history of his father's side of his family, and how everything had happened. After going through old newspaper articles and photo albums and interviewing his grandfather, this kid began to discover a very interesting story about his family and the mystery they had tried to, and eventually began to understand... The Story of Mr. Foster Mr. Foster was a respectable man with a job that was considered a good one in the year of 1953. He was about forty-two years old. His daughter, Wanslee, had just married a strapping young man named George Hornbuckle, making his daughter Wanslee Foster Hornbuckle. She was already pregnant with her first child, who was soon come. Mr. Foster did not know his father; just his good ole mother. His father actually had never known that he had a son. But little did Mr. Foster know, his father was dead. Thus far, life had treated him well. But odd things were beginning to happen to him. At first, it was just a twitch here and a twitch there. Then he began to have erratic emotional patterns. Over the months, he began to become forgetful, and his logical reasoning dropped. Then the twitching got much worse. Mr. Foster had always been a caring and generous man with a good head on his shoulders. But by the time he was forty-six, he was hard to walk next to and his judgement had gotten far worse. Then one day, at about the age of forty-eight, he got up one morning and decided not to go to work. The year was 1961. By now, Mr. Foster had a nine-year-old grandson, a seven-year-old grand son, and a twelve-year-old grand daughter...the children of his daughter, Wanslee, and his son in law, George. And by now, they were all very aware that there was something seriously wrong with Mr. Foster, because he liked to stay in bed and turn the radio up as loud as it would go, so that you could here it at the other end of the street. He had the most erratic behavior of anyone they knew. He fell down often when walking and appeared incapable of keeping still, because even when he was sleeping, he was always moving his hands, arms, legs, face, and everything else. Mrs. Foster couldn't sleep in the same bed as him. And nobody knew why. Why was Mr. Foster becoming more and more weird in his actions? Why was he so illogical? What was happening to him? What was causing it? And one day, for unknown reasons, Mr. Foster beat up Mrs. Foster. Fortunately, Mr. Foster was so badly coordinated that Mrs. Foster managed to escape. She called the police and Mr. Foster was arrested. Then he was taken to the hospital, to see if anyone could explain his strange erratic movements, emotional patterns, and illogical thinking. After that, he was sent to Milledgeville, Georgia, to the insane asylum. All they could tell Mrs. Foster, Wanslee, and George was that his brain was deteriorating away, which was what caused all of the strange erratic behaviors. But it still left many unsolved questions, such as: why was his brain deteriorating away? What was the cause of this? These were questions that, at the time, could not be answered. And three years later, poor Mr. Foster died in the Insane Asylum. A Story About Woody Guthrie Through out the thirties and forties, Woody Guthrie was considered to be the greatest folk singer in America. With songs like: "Do Re Mi" "Take you a ride in the Car" "This Land was made for you and me" and "Hobo's Lullaby" he became the first big musical inspiration to hit the radio. Everyone in America knew who Woody Guthrie was. But around the year 1950, Woody Guthrie began to have more and more trouble playing his guitar and his lyrics were beginning to lose their majestic tone. He seemed incapable of writing the great lyrics that he used to produce. Eventually, he began to go in and out of every hospital, trying to find out what was wrong with him. At first it was thought that he was an alcoholic. But they were wrong. His conditions got far worse. And they continued to get worse and worse, until the legendary folk singer died in 1967, at the age of fifty-three. But soon, Scientists and doctors began to discover what it really was. They began to notice similar patterns in hundreds of people. All of them had been fine until they reached forty when suddenly; they began to lose their minds, dying about twelve to fifteen years later. And they found out why. The Story of Wanslee Foster Hornbuckle Many years had passed since the passing of Mr. Foster, and George Napoleon Hornbuckle and Wanslee Foster Hornbuckle were a happily married couple of three children: Janet David and Greg. Wanslee had been a very a strong, but loving mother. She had been a woman's activist, and the president of a woman's organization in Georgia. She was an incredible person with a warm heart and a beautiful smile. But at about the age of forty, certain things were happening that she had seen happen to someone else before...the same actions she'd seen from her father. The same erratically emotional outbursts, strange twitching movements... Surely, she thought, she couldn't have the same thing her father had. But over time, she began to get worse. She told their neighbor that she knew that she would kill herself if she had the same thing as her father, which was something the normal Wanslee would never think about doing. It was because of whatever was happening that she was saying this. And being that her logical reasoning had dropped so much, she went into denial of having what her father had and convinced her that she might have Alzheimers. Her husband, George, had tried to take her to the hospital. "I won't go!" she said angrily. "Wanslee, what's wrong with--" "There's nothing wrong with me, George," she protested, sitting in her armchair, knitting. "Wanslee, I'm worried about you," said George. Wanslee got up. "I'm not going, and that's final," she said and she left the living room, walked through the kitchen and into the back porch. Then she went into the back yard. The suddenly, she fell down and screamed. George came running outside. Wanslee had twisted her ankle. Now, they had to go to the hospital. And they did. And when they were there, the doctor said that they needed to see a neurologist right away. And they discovered the truth. They found out what it was that had caused Mr. Foster to die, caused Woody Guthrie to die, and hundreds of thousand of other to die as well. The year soon became 1998, and George had organized a family gathering to say goodbye to Wanslee, who could no longer speak. Her thinking ability did not allow her to solve simple problems like 5 plus 7. Several of her friends from over the years were there too. As well as Janet, David, and Greg. Janet's children were there and so was David's oldest child. He was looking at a bird in a cage, and appearing to find much interest in it...almost as if it were something else. His little mind knew nothing of what was happening and what would soon happen. He did not know that his dad had been diagnosed with the same disease as Wanslee. He had no idea that he himself was at a fifty- percent chance of getting it one day as well. This disease has been around for thousands of years. But people had either died before forty, or had died doing something stupid, caused by the disease. But partially in thanks to Woody Guthrie, we now know much more about it. We know much more about what killed Mr. Foster, Wanslee and hundreds of others. The Huntington's Disease is caused by an autosomal dominant gene on Chromosome 4. It is a piece of DNA that makes the Huntingtin protein. But on some people, this gene is duplicated dozens of times and somehow, it is because of this, that Mr. Foster, Woody Guthrie, Wanslee Hornbuckle, and many many others have had their brains detereorate away. Somehow, this strand of mutated DNA either creates a protein that kills brain cells, or deprives the brain cells of a protein that they need; scientists have not discovered which. It is because of this, that four thousand people die every year in the United States alone. It is because of this small piece of DNA, that 100,000 people living in the United States today have or will have decomposing brains and there is nothing that they can do to prevent it or stop it. And to make matters worse, a total for 200,000 people are at risk for inheriting it. And because so many people know that they can't get it, they do not care about it. Instead, they worry about AIDS, which has 300,000 victims in America; not very far ahead the Huntington's Disease. Ironic, isn't it? The disease that can be prevented by getting tests and using condoms overshadows the disease that's victims have no choice but to go insane and die. And until recently, it looked like my friend who was fascinated by the bird in the cage had a fifty- percent chance of going insane and dying. But now there is a very bright light shining through these dark clouds. There is lots of hope for my good friend. Stem Cell Research is said to be the only path to curing Huntington's Disease. Genetic Engineers know that if the government could only not restrict them, that they could find a cure within a couple of years. But the American government has put many restrictions on Genetic Engineering, and because of this, my friend's dad is going to unfortunately, die soon, because he is already passed the point of saving. "My father will die before I get out of High School. I will miss him very much when the time comes. As a matter of fact, I miss him right now. He is actually sitting across the room from me, but it's not really him. It's just what's left of him...just what's left of a great man who was the counselor at a camp to help out juveniles who had lots of problems in their lives...a great man that even adopted one of them, and took care of him like one of his own...a great man that earned a Ph. D in psychology and became a professor...a great man that had always been ver healthy and always willing to help others out...and a great man is what I will always remember him as."--The teenager that I know. Based On A True Story Joey Carlton