What is HD
Journal
Meet The Family
Q: and A:
Huntingtons Links
Family Tree
Medications
Now What?
The first thing that you should do is seek out counseling. You have been diagnosed with something that is going to impact you the rest of your life. A counselor/therapist or psychiatrists can help you immensely. Talking to someone may help you organize your thoughts and help you get rid of some of your anxieties. Try your best to communicate with them. If they don�t know what is going on it will be harder for them to help you. Also, you may want to bring some information to them about Huntington�s Disease due to the fact that only 1 out of 10,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with it.
Also if you have children they may need to same kind of help as you do. They have just found out that Mom or Dad is sick and might be scared. In therapy questions may be answer for children about Huntingtons.
Questions:
What if I don�t have money or insurance to see a therapist?
Now that you have been diagnosed with Huntington�s
you should be eligible for Disability or Medicaid. You may again need to explain to people what Huntington�s is to them. You may need to advocate for your self.
The second thing that you should do is think about your children. At one point in your life you will not be able to take care of them. Making plans on who will take care of your child or children will ensure that they will be taken care of after you are gone or too sick. A family member or friend of the family can take care of them. To make such arrangements you need to talk to a lawyer. Also while you are there you may want to get information about a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate.) This means that if you were to dying that you would not want any extraordinary measure to be taken when you are or about to die. No feeding tubes or breathing machines. These topic should be discussed with both parents (if plausible) and children if appropriate. Please keep in mind that you do not have to do this right away. This should be thought out for as long as you need to.
Questions:
What if I have no one to take care of my children?
Sadly this situation may come up. To keep your children
safe they may need to be placed in foster care or adopted.
This is not the only solution. A social work may be able to
answer this question better than I can.