A little worried? I feel lucky. – Adam Zwan

 

Wolfram syndrome patient Adam Zwan and family at Christmas time

The Zwan family celebrating Christmas with their festive holiday sweaters.

A Little Worried?

I feel lucky to have a family that loves me as much as they do but like everything in life there are some consequences. Before being diagnosed with diabetes and then Wolfram Syndrome, I could visit family members and make it an enjoyable event. I still enjoy seeing family but my presence has changed from a pleasant visit to a worrisome task.

In previous years I would pay visits to parts of the family and there would be lots of food, fun, and laughter. In the past few years I have felt guilty for creating so much fear and worry that I think twice before packing a bag to stay the weekend at someone’s house. The fear and worry that I speak of is due to my health and its complications creating this mindset of “I hope nothing goes wrong while he’s here.” My visiting experiences are filled with “can Adam eat this?, has Adam ate enough?, is Adam in pain?, does Adam need to go home early?, Lord I hope nothing happens while Adam is here.” I have had one or two issues with glucose levels during the evening that no longer occur but each time I stay somewhere my family is adamant when using a baby monitor and or sleeping on the sofa next to me just to make sure nothing occurs while sleeping.

I am very thankful to have a family love me as much as I do but pleasant experiences have certainly changed due to Wolfram Syndrome. When I get the feeling that I am a fly in the ointment and not a pleasant visitor I just grit my teeth and say that it could be worse so accept it and count my blessings. I try to stay optimistic by hoping and praying that something will change for the better in the near future.

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Adam Zwan was featured by WCET News

In January 2013, Adam Zwan was featured by the NBC affiliate in his hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina, WCET News.

The story was to show what it is like for Adam to live  with Wolfram syndrome. That night, Adam began to experience severe abdominal pain and was rushed to the hospital where he remained for a week. Despite the delay from Adam’s hospital stay, the news team came back to finish their story. Here is the five minute video on our good friend, Adam Zwan, where you can see for yourself the courage and spirit Adam exudes every day.
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How to slow Wolfram Syndrome progression? – Adam Zwan

How to slow Wolfram Syndrome progression?

Steps toward a cure for diabetes and Wolfram Syndrome are being made and successful results are occurring in scientific research. The treatments are not yet available for Wolfram patients so it’s wise to attempt slowing Wolfram progression until treatments are available. In addition to being a Wolfram patient I am also a huge advocate for correcting one’s health on one’s own without the use of prescriptions.
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Tenth High School Reunion – Lauren Gibilisco

It’s been 10 years since I graduated from High School. We had our 10th year reunion this last weekend. I had to find someone who could help lead me around. I love my mom but going to a reunion with your mom is just not cool, so I asked my friend Meredith to take me.

The first festivity was a float in a parade. The class reunions are always during our town’s celebration weekend. As much as I wanted to sit on the float with my classmates, I knew it would be impossible. The weather was 85 degrees which is way too hot for me to be outside long and then there was the problem of needing a restroom. We had to line up on our float an hour before the parade and then the parade was an hour long. I can’t go that long without needing the restroom. It really disappointed me but I’ve learned there are things I just can’t partake in.

The next festivity was out at a cabin.   I talked with my mom and decided it would just be too hard for me to walk across an uneven surface, be outside in the heat, and again needing the restroom. So we decided to just skip that also. Then my friend Meredith said she was only going to stay out there for an hour and would help guide me around. I was very excited about that. I really did want to go but didn’t want to be a burden to anyone. But Meredith insisted that I wouldn’t be a burden and she would be glad to take me there. I was really happy I went. I got to see a lot of my classmates. Well I couldn’t SEE them but I was able to talk with them and say hello. Meredith took me around and let me know who was there so I could say hello to everyone.

Then that evening there was a dinner banquet. Meredith again took me there and helped me to the table. Unfortunately not many of my classmates came. So I was really glad I was able to go to the cabin because I saw many more classmates then I would have been able to see at the banquet.

After the banquet everyone was heading to the bar to celebrate. There was a live band playing and it was less than ½ block to my house. Unfortunately by this time I was getting very tired. That darn fatigue was getting in the way of my continuing the celebration. I told everyone that I would be the designated driver to drive them home but no one took me up on that one. I wonder why? But overall it was a great experience and I’m glad I went and I’m glad that my friend Meredith took the time to help me enjoy the celebration. I am very grateful to her.

Image of Lauren Gibilisco's class reunion.

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Vocational Rehabilitation – Adam Zwan

Maybe or Maybe Not

image of a golf cartOriginally, I was told that Vocational Rehabilitation could provide financial assistance towards a street legal golf cart. When I first heard these words I was exhilarated to think that independent transportation is a possibility. I am still not full time at the wellness and rehabilitation center I work for so financial assistance is needed to acquire a street legal golf cart. It was explained that I must obtain a quote for a golf cart, add it to my file, Vocational Rehabilitation would purchase the golf cart, and then Vocational Rehabilitation would receive a tax rebate. It was all planned out and I was feeling optimistic that a Wolfram Patient, like me, could increase level of independence. Although, I try my best to be cautiously optimistic by saying that it may happen or it may not.
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Dog sitting and Volunteering – Lauren Gibilisco

For once I can say that I have had a busy couple of weeks. It was really nice.  My sister took a vacation to Cancun. We got to dog sit Emmy, my sister’s dog, for a whole week. I have written about her before so I know you know her. It was fun to have extra company and someone to play with. But there were some problems.

Wolfram syndrome patient Lauren GibiliscoEmmy needed to be taken out to go to the bathroom. I couldn’t do that. First of all, I couldn’t see to put her leash on and hook her up to the stake. I also couldn’t see if she went to the bathroom. I am also not allowed to go outside by myself because I can so easily lose my direction and have trouble finding the house again. That was the rule put down after I got lost outside my house for an hour and 15 minutes in a tee shirt and shorts when it was 28 degrees. So my mom had to come home every couple of hours to let Emmy outside.

Emmy was very distracted while outside. My mom said she was a city dog in the country. My mom would tell her to go potty and she would start to but… oh a bird, I hear an owl, there are kids playing, leaves are blowing, etc. It did not take much to distract her. It would sometimes take a half hour to get her to settle down and go potty.

The other problem I had with Emmy is that she is very energetic. She liked to play a lot. I get tired in the afternoons and need to rest. But Emmy would bark at me to play. She wouldn’t let me sleep until I played with her. Luckily I didn’t have to play a long time. Overall, the rest of the time she was Emmy, my favorite dog and great company for me.

Here is the great news. I found another volunteer job. I am going to work at our local museum helping to catalog, fold clothes and put away special papers to preserve them. It is really fun. I work with this lady called Deb. She likes to talk as much as I do so my nonstop talking doesn’t bother her. It is very interesting the things we are preserving. A lot of the items I have never heard about or know how they were used, so it is fun learning about history while working. We have been folding linens this week. Although I can’t see them, Deb describes them to me and I feel the textures of the fabric. It is amazing to wonder how those people back then could create such intricate work.

I work at the museum on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons for about 4 hours. Then I am still working Wednesday morning at the telephone company. This will really help keep me occupied and I won’t be stuck at home being bored. Although I am not getting paid, it is so great to be out around people again and having someone else to talk to than just my mom. There is only one problem. My mom thought that when I got this job I would be talking to other people and so I would not have to talk to her so much. Oh she was so wrong. I come home and have stories to tell and conversations to repeat. So although I am not bored anymore, my mom unfortunately is still stuck with me talking non-stop.

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New Beginnings – Adam Zwan

a group of children in the sunset with a sign that says HOPE above them.Wolfram Syndrome is a rapid aging and deterioration of the central nervous system. The damages consist of diabetes, chronic kidney failure, deafness, and blindness; it’s not anything to be ashamed of, it’s just not something worth bragging about on the first date.
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Independence – Adam Zwan

wolfram syndrome independenceI recently moved out of my parents’ home to live on my own in an apartment all in an effort to gain some independence and self-sufficiency. It has been a start to the next chapter in my life with both pros and cons. It feels good to depend on myself to fulfill everyday tasks but it will take some time for my family to relax and feel confident that I can fend for myself.
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Adventures in driving – Lauren Gibilisco

When I was 13 I saw a low vision specialist. He was trying different devices on me to get my vision a little better. Then he told me “you will never ever drive.” Well that about told me what my future was going to be like.

Me and my wonderful Mom.

Me and my wonderful Mom.

But I was going to prove the doctor wrong. My mom took me to a very large, empty parking lot. There I was able to satisfy my need for speed. I would go very fast and then slam on the brakes so the car would spin around. Then my mom would take me out into the country and I would drive fast on the gravel roads. One day she said “Lauren look out for that ditch,” and I said, “What ditch?” I was heading straight for it. My mom said that was enough. No more driving on the country roads or parking lots. My dad asked my mom if I would be a good driver if I could see. My mom said “No. The way she likes to drive fast she would get a whole lot of speeding tickets.” After our driving attempts I think that was when my mom started coloring her hair. Riding with me turned her hair gray.

This week on TV I saw something that may change my life. They are coming closer to having cars that drive themselves. I knew there were already cars out there that could parallel park. Could you imagine me trying to park between two cars? Well now they actually have cars that drive themselves. You just tell it where to go and it will drive you right there. They say it will be a lot safer driving than some of the people on the roads today. This would solve my problems. Right now I am reliant on my mom to drive me everywhere. She takes me shopping, out to eat or go to our many doctor appointments. Now I would be able to just jump in the car and say “take me there.” How cool would that be?

So technology has come a long way. They have come up with things that can really help people like me. They have talking watches, talking alarm clocks, talking scales, talking meters and many more. So there are great possibilities out there in technology that will make our life easier.

The only downfall I can see right now to getting a car that drives itself, is that I would probably visit the ice cream store a whole lot more.

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If I could heal one thing – Lauren Gibilisco

A couple of weeks ago I was asked if one thing could be healed on me, what would it be? I thought about it for a while and decided it would be my hearing. I asked my mom what she thought and she answered blindness of course. She couldn’t believe I said my hearing.

Photo of Lauren Gibilisco

Lauren Gibilisco

My hearing went before my blindness. But with the hearing I was able to get hearing aids that definitely helped me hear. Life went on and I slowly lost my vision. It wasn’t something that went at once so I was able to adapt. My cane instructor worked with me to listen for sounds in order to cross streets and even know where I was. So vision was directly affected by hearing.

Last week, my one hearing aid quit working and the other one had the ear mold fall off. This happened both at the same time. Suddenly I almost couldn’t hear anything. My mom called up our hearing doctor and asked if we could drop off my hearing aid that day and have them glue it back together. We had a hearing appointment scheduled for the next week but I couldn’t wait that long. It was right before Easter when all our relatives were coming to our house. They of course said they would be happy to do it for me. This is out of town for us, so my mom and me went out to lunch and then did some shopping to waste time until they called to say it was fixed.

Now just think about it. Here I was, not able to see anything, and now couldn’t hardly hear anything. My mom had to yell in my ear for me to hear. All of the sudden my vision became much worse because I did not have my hearing to help guide me. The dark became darker.

The following week I went to my hearing appointment. My hearing had been getting really bad and my mom made the appointment because she was tired of having to scream all the time. The good news is that the doctor said my hearing had decreased but not that much. It was my hearing aids that were shot. I needed a new pair. He also was telling us about the improvements in hearing aids since I had my other pair. He said they made them moisture proof so when I sweat in the summer it won’t affect them. He said I would be able to hear much better for the advancements but would still have difficulty understanding what was being said. It’s like I can’t tell if you said “pink or sink”. This makes me take time to understand what you are saying because here I am thinking you are talking about something being pink and you instead are talking about the sink. This takes the brain a little longer to catch up.

Now even though he said the understanding would still be a problem, there would be an improvement. I was happy to hear this. I talk with kids all over the world and understanding their accents is sometimes very difficult. I hope this will help me so I will be better able to connect with the world.

Now my mother understood why I would want my hearing fixed soon. I can get around pretty good with my cane and with my hearing I can do almost anything. After thinking it all through my mom had thought without being able to hear and see I would only have a few options. Would a cochlear implant help me or would we have to start learning sign language in the hand like Helen Keller did. My mom admitted it was more stressful to always having to repeat things than picking up something I bumped into and broke. Life is always amusing.

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