Five years ago, journalist Nicole de Jong lost her father to the consequences of HCHWA-D, also known as Katwijk’s disease. A disease process had a significant impact on her childhood. Since she had a fifty percent chance of contracting the disease herself, she decided to talk to carriers and those at risk of genetic diseases on her podcast “Sick Inheritance.” Do you want to know whether you will get sick or not?
On the Sick Legacy podcast, Nicole confronts her own history. She delves into her family background, discusses with her loved ones how the risk of a genetic disease affects their lives, and ultimately makes a decision about whether she is truly ready to have her DNA tested.
“I have always seen firsthand the impact of the multiple brain hemorrhages my father suffered as a result of the disease,” the podcaster begins. Catvik disease leads to the accumulation of brain hemorrhages. De Jong: “After the first hemorrhage, my father was able to work a few hours four days a week, and his life flourished a little until he had a hemorrhage on vacation in Italy in 2009.”
“I was feeding my father”
From that moment on, De Jong saw her father deteriorating more and more at home. “My father could no longer work, and he would go to day care twice a week to exercise, and I helped him get dressed, and he couldn’t eat the last leftovers, so I would feed my father. He was dependent on everything,” the podcast creator says. “.
Taking care of your father as a young woman is difficult, DeYoung says. “It’s something you grow up with, it’s your reality. But when you come to friends’ houses, you realize it’s not normal. I’ve always done it with love, but I didn’t have a father before he got sick.
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The probability of contracting the disease is 50%
The probability that Nicole has the same condition as her father is at least 50 percent. But do you want to know whether you will get sick or not? A question that De Jong struggled with a lot. “I have a tremendous need for security and feel a great responsibility. In light of the additional choices I will make in my life, I feel a responsibility to investigate this matter now. I am too afraid to convey it. Because I have known since I was young that I was in danger, I want to answer for myself. No matter how terrified I am “I find him.”
