One year ago today Irene was admitted into the hospital. We didn’t know it would be for two weeks. We didn’t know she would spontaneously develop this disease. A disease that folds a Prion protein in her brain, which in turn cause an avalanche of like-proteins to do the same. We didn’t know this would be the beginning of a bout she would not survive. No one has survived from this disease.

DNA —-> RNA—-> Protein

Human DNA, composed of equal branches of chromosomes from mom and dad.
DNA makes RNA.
RNA makes the body’s protein.
Protein ‘writes’ instructions for the body.

A single protein, the Prion protein, either receives incorrect instructions from the RNA or, for whatever reason, encodes the received information improperly.

Which is it? Miscommunication or incorrect implementation of instruction?

When asked, Irene’s Neurologist told me this disease is so hard to diagnose, or even manage if that was even possible, because “It’s not at the cellular level, it’s molecular.”

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), or more generally called ‘Prion disease,’ affects only 300-500 people in the country per year, and it got Irene.