More on illness - brain tumors?! What?

[sodzilla]

I need a disease that could be diagnosed early (the character is an otherwise healthy 22-year-old man), that is incurable or practically so, and that would progress quickly enough that the said guy would be looking at only a few years before he was debilitated by the symptoms. At the same time, it can't be too quick because for story purposes he

Comments

[musiquephan]

Multiple Sclerosis is a scary little demon that comes on slowly and is progressive. I work with someone who has it and have watched it progress (he was diagnosed probably 4 years ago.) It was slow at first, but the last two years have really taken so much way from him. (i.e., muscle tone/muscle weakness, balance, coordination - although his hands don't tremble.)

[into_the_sun]

Also, note there are several types of MS. Two in particular are the version that goes into remission - that is, a person with it would have an "episode" of symptoms, and then be fine - and another that is persistant and does not have periods of remission.

[sodzilla]

*headdesks* Thanks, people - can't believe I didn't think of that first thing, I know people with MS...

[into_the_sun]

:)

[wildchildcait]

check out Creutzfeld-Jacobs Disease...CJD

[sodzilla]

But aren't there only a couple dozen or so known cases of that?

[into_the_sun]

The nice thing about that is you can make the symptoms fit your needs a little more. That is to say, there is no standard progression of the disease.

Infected meat would not be all that hard to come by, but you would have to be very particular as to where he had eaten it. Additionally, he could have gotten it from a medical procedure that used equipment used on a CJD patient. Another possible connection could be blood transfusions from tainted blood stock.

That brought something else to mind, how about HIV/AIDS?

[sodzilla]

Hmmm, HIV is a possibility since canonically he sleeps around a lot... however, I'm kind of worried about this becoming a blatant "let's punish the bad guy and make him a Better Person" arc as it is, so I wouldn't want it to be something that could be considered a direct consequence of his previous behavior.

Something genetic or with a genetic predisposition on the other hand would be just the ticket, 'cause a lot of his bad-guy-ness centers on his incredible arrogance about his natural abilities and it would really bring his world crashing down if he found out he'd gotten some bad along with all the good. "OK, you can do absolutely anything... and you've got eighteen months to do it, after that, your body's going to start to give out."

[tisiphone]

You might look at Huntington's disease. Symptoms include (at the onset) mood swings, depression, difficulty concentrating, minor coordination issues, and continue to tremors, etc. Fatigue and muscle problems are common side effects of the drugs used to treat it. Plus, for extra drama, it's genetic and there's a well-known test for it, so it'd be possible for him to know about it for a while before symptoms start setting in. But on the other hand, between 1 and 3% of Huntington's patients don't fit the genetic profile. The progression is very individualized, making it easy to fit into your story - some people live for decades with it, some die in a few years or less. Also, cause of death is usually a secondary illness like pneumonia.

[sodzilla]

That could work very well, thanks! Now only to check the incidence of Huntington's in Japan...

[fusepark]

A glioma would kill him way too quick for your purposes. Look at MS and ALS.

[cosmorific]

[random drive-by Hiruma icon love]

[sodzilla]

*glomps yours in turn*

[cosmorific]

OMGlove! Where did you get that one?

[sodzilla]

I makes 'em, my precioussss... *grins*