My older brother, Peter Shoun, was diagnosed with the always fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in the spring of 2025 at the age of 67. Before diagnosis he had been experiencing some odd symptoms, including forgetting how to use a checkbook to pay the bills and noticing how shaky his own hands were becoming, which in turn impacted his handwriting. He also ended up losing his balance, for no apparent reason, falling and hitting his head which required 10 stitches.
On 7-12-25 Peter won 2 games of Scrabble, his favorite game. By 7-21-25, only 9 days later, he was unable to even come up with a starting word for the game.
With a CJD diagnosis, it is a blessing and a curse that the disease progresses so quickly. Of course we don't want our loved ones to suffer for an extended period of time, so for them, it's a blessing that it moves so fast. For those of us surrounding the person, it moves so quickly we have to continually adjust to their rapidly changing needs. And then we are left to wonder, "how could this happen?"
Peter's condition steadily declined through summer 2025 and he left us on September 27th.
The CJD Foundation is an invaluable resources for families affected by this horrible disease. I'm helping to raise money for the CJD Foundation. This will help them to support affected families and fund research for treatments and someday a cure for CJD.