Neuro Note 4

Article

From high school to nursing home: 20-year-old learns to cope with fatal disease

Getting good grades, going to the lake, and participating in my sorority were my priorities when I was 20 years old. For Desiree Buettner, priorities look a lot different as she has is living with Juvenile Huntington's disease (HD). Her priorities consist of marking off bucket list items because she knows that her life is expected to be short. Huntington's disease is a degenerative, neurological disease that causes the breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. 

I appreciate this article because it goes against the grain of what your mind typically thinks. When you think Huntington's disease, your mind doesn't go to a teenage girl living in a nursing home. This widens your perspective to encompass all clients that you might encounter in your scope of practice. I would recommend this to my classmates because although it is a rather sad article, it also serves as a good picture of someone prioritizing their quality of life. And we could all learn from that as future occupational therapists.

I chose this article because my I don't know anyone with Huntington's disease and my knowledge on the topic is small. I am interested in working with people in all stages of life, so the likelihood that I may have a client with Huntington's disease is high. I'm thankful I read Desiree's story and saw a little more into the life of someone living with Juvenile HD. 

Butz, D. (2018, March 30). From high school to nursing home: 20-year-old learns to cope with fatal disease. Retrieved from https://siouxcityjournal.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/from-high-school-to-nursing-home--year-old-learns/article_06dd5b66-dd55-52ee-864d-c54b7be8d324.html