Tag: diagnosed

Anyone who has been given a cancer diagnosis makes an immediate recalibration of every previously held ambition. Friends and loved ones often don't understand how priorities held for a lifetime can change overnight when someone learns he or she has cancer. Reactions to a cancer diagnosis, regardless of the prognosis, will vary according to personality, but each person will experience an onslaught of fear, worry and uncertainty.

Autism awareness has risen significantly across the past decade. In this day and age it’s challenging to find anyone who doesn't realize that autism significantly impacts youngsters and their families.

Unfortunately, most adults with autism lack the correct diagnosis. Robison (2019) estimates that only 3-10% of adults on the autism spectrum are accurately identified.

The good news is that autism awareness and diagnosis have improved by leaps and bounds over the last decade. Detection is now possible at a very early age. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics encourages screening for autistic features as early as 18 months.

The bad news is that autism recognition initiatives have almost exclusively focused on early childhood. Low diagnosis rates of autism in adults who missed early detection have created a significant gap in our ability to provide vital assistance throughout the lifespan.

Today, 5.7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s and related dementias. By 2050 the number is projected to grow to nearly 14 million. Bracing against the disease while standing alongside those diagnosed are family and friends wrapped in an intricate web of perplexing emotion.

Dementia plays out in stages. I think about the arc of my mother’s life as college sorority sister, to wife, mother and career, through my father’s passing, followed by her 18-year dementia journey and, ultimately, her death.

I have lived most of my life with a chronic autoimmune disease. I was a teenager when diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. My normal childhood was shattered with a sudden inability to walk or raise my arms to brush my hair and doctors used haunting words like "chronic" and "deterioration" that scared me. At the young age of 14, I knew my life would never be the same.

It came to me after a short time of living with this crippling disease that I have a relationship with this illness, just like I have relationships with everything else in my life. However, this relationship was perhaps my most intimate relationship because we share the same body. I figured out that I better become friends to the best of my ability with my disease and limitations because we probably have a long life together.