One In a Billion

Answers

Alex's POV

On August 27, 1947, my dearest, John Laurens passed away peacefully in his sleep, if you could even call it that. The man was too young, age 24, way too young. Constantly in pain and ruin, both mind and body leaving him. By the time his life slipped away from us, he was so out of it he probably felt no pain at all... The doctors were not able to determine the cause of death. I felt like he was the only thing I had left and now that was taken away from me.

His passing, however, encouraged me in a sense. I stayed up late into the night, stopped at nothing until the year 1949 when I found something. I was right all along, and now I had something to show the world. John died of no normal illness, but instead was caused by a completely new disease, one no one had heard of before.

That was until me.

Years have passed now. I'm in my old age and yet still miss my husband so much. His death is what kept me and my work going. He had me non-stop. What we know now is much more than we ever knew before, when I first described his condition. John was just the unlucky one out of the bunch. The chances of getting what he had are so incredibly slim. Since his death, only 500 cases or so have been reported, compared to the billions and billions other diseases get. He was at least fortunate enough to get Type II, that way he could live his life past the age of 4. Although, I'm not really sure if that's really a good or bad thing. Most cases happen to children but John was special enough to live longer than usual.

It took us years to figure out the cause of this rare disease, a mutation in the GFAP genes. Sadly, the changed gene is dominant so you only need one strand of DNA from it to spread throughout your body and kill you.

The disease normally starts before the patient is even conceived. Getting into technical terms, the illness begins during the development of sperm, ova, or the embryo. Even with the mutation, there's only a 50/50 chance of it multiplying.

What specifically causes the mutation to happen we still don't know. The mutations don't interfere with the normal GFAP gene, but rather produce a new, toxic effect. There are some special cases that affect 5% of patients where their strand of the disease is not even caused by a genetic mutation. This means it is much more difficult or even impossible to detect the illness. If you were part of the 95% of patients who have the mutation, then it can be discovered simply through a DNA sample.

The condition is categorized under leukodystrophies- diseases affecting the white matter in the brain. It spreads everywhere within the nervous system, including the cerebral cortex, brainstem, and spinal cord.

Unfortunately we never were able to find a cure. So far we can only treat it, similar to certain types of cancers. We hope that one day we can rid the world of this rare killer someday.

Oh I never even mentioned what they decided to name it.

Alexander.

They decided to name it Alexander Disease because of my hard work and discoveries. I'm flattered, but I must admit it feels off for someone to say their loved one died because of "me", but either way my dedication to the field is my legacy, and I'm glad to be a part of the process to healing, one step at a time. My work here is done, and in more way than one.

I am dying.

It's all right, do not fret. For I have lived a happy 92 years of my life. I have taken my time. Now I may see him on the other side.

No POV

He whispers these last words to himself, a tear of tenderness falling down his cheek, as he takes his final breath, good day.