Mike's Story 1-Million -CJD

Hello friends, family, and strangers. My name is Jessica and i am the daughter of Michael McCadden. About 6-8 weeks ago my dad started to show some odd symptoms that we immediately were concerned with. It started out with mental confusion and inability to speak. We could be having a conversation and it was like someone hit the mental brakes, and he had trouble getting any words out, and when he did, a lot of times it wasn’t relevant. Then we started noticing problems with his coordination. Bowling was one of his favorite weekly activities that he had never had an issue with, and now he was falling walking down the lane. Small activities like playing with the dog in the house became too complicated. Shortly after that we noticed odd body movements. Constant tapping of hands or feet, and/or body rocking back and forth. Was extremely drawn to soft objects and needed to be touching something non stop. After that we noticed a huge personality change, he became very depressed and even talked about self harm. Within all of these symptoms we have been to several doctors looking for answers, and everyone seemed to be at a loss. They tried changing his medication. Over night evaluations. Blood test. CT scans. Spinal Taps. We had done every test possible, and they couldn’t find anything. We were at a loss.. My dad has now seen an infectious disease doctor and a neurologist who both think that he has CJD..(Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease), a degenerative neurological brain disease of which there is no cure. This disease is extremely rare... And effects one in 1 million world wide. It breaks my heart to see such a hard working man go through such an evil disease. It works so fast. One day I’m feeding him his favorite pudding, and the next day he can’t speak or open his eyes.. My dad served 20+ Years in the Air Force and we were extremely blessed enough to have him be the sole provider for our family my whole life. Unfortunately the bills still have to be paid. CJD comes out of nowhere and we were not prepared for this. We have been blessed to be approved for a Leave program for government employees to donate leave to him to hopefully receive another check. I was asked by several non government employees to share his story so that others could help as well. I appreciate all the love and prayers from everyone in this extremely hard time. We hope to take him to Mayo, although the doctors don’t see any hope for it. We will keep fighting til the end! God bless.