Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Until the other day, I had not previously heard of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Ignorance is bliss according to an old adage. I wish I was still ignorant of this wretched disease. I have come familiar with it as an acquaintance-friend has received this as a diagnosis.

My friend M is an outgoing, bubbly, creative, vivacious lady with two young sons. A few weeks ago she started to behave out of the character. Finally she was brought in by her husband for an evaluation. Two hospital stays, several mis-diagnoses later, we are sadden to learn the realities of this horrible disease.

Some information from http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/cjd/detail_cjd.htm:
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare, degenerative, invariably fatal brain disorder. It affects about one person in every one million people per year worldwide; in the United States there are about 200 cases per year. CJD usually appears in later life and runs a rapid course. Typically, onset of symptoms occurs about age 60, and about 90 percent of individuals die within 1 year. In the early stages of disease, people may have failing memory, behavioral changes, lack of coordination and visual disturbances. As the illness progresses, mental deterioration becomes pronounced and involuntary movements, blindness, weakness of extremities, and coma may occur.

M is not the same wonderful person we all know from just a few weeks past. She is now having coordination problems, personality changes, and losing the ability to communicate.

I want to scream: HOW IS THIS FAIR?!?! She is young, she has children, she is nice, she is my friend! How does one who lives in my community, live in my sphere of influence contract a rare and horrible disease? How can I, little ole me, know one person in a million with this disease? This is not right. Those young boys should remember their mom for who she was not what she is becoming. Dang it - they deserve their mother period.

I am angry, I am sad, I am praying. In these times, I am so thankful for my personal relationship with Jesus and my Heavenly Father God. I know that He hears my prayers, feels my pain, and walks beside me. I don't understand and then I am reminded... My ways not His ways; my thoughts are not His thoughts. [Isaiah 55:8 (NIV)“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.] But still.... I want to understand, I want it to be fair, I want to bad things of this world to go away!

But I can pray - my God is a God of miracles. He is Almighty, the Great I Am, the Everlasting. As I struggle with my own sense of injustice I try to remind myself that I do not know the whole picture. I cannot see the past or the future or the other surrounding issues. Only God knows all these things - - He is the only one to weave these things together for His Righteousness and glory.

An easy pill to swallow - No! An act of faith - Yes!

My prayers are for M, for her family, for her friends...