Jessica Green: For most of us the thought our parents getting sick is unimaginable. But for Susan Hicks this has become a reality. Hick's mother recently diagnosed with Chorea disease is suffering from an illness that has no cure.
Susan Hicks: It is a diagnosed neurological disorder and the dementia comes on with it, the confusion comes on with it and then you add that to being just being elderly and it has been a real struggle for her and its been hard for us to sit back and watch it, because she is the strongest certainly for an independent person I know.
Jessica Green: Hick's frustration lies with the lack of facilities able to care for her mother.
Susan Hicks: She is just falling through the cracks, nobody is willing to come up and say, "I'm going to help you."
Jessica Green: So what is Chorea disease? According to medicinenet.com, the term chorea describes how people affected with the disorder writhe, twist, and turn in a constant, uncontrollable dancelike motion. More than 15,000 Americans suffer from some form of chorea with the most common being Huntington's chorea. Many symptoms include personality changes, affected cognitive functions, involuntary movements throughout the body, problems with balance, slurred speech and dementia. As Hick searches for a facility take care of her mother she also worries about how this affects her oldest son.
Susan Hicks: Actually we thought she was going to die this last week and if that was the result I would have preferred for him to remember her in as she was you know -- screaming at referees just like we did.
Jessica Green: Hick says the stress of her mother illness is all consuming, but she knows her mother would do the same for her.
Susan Hicks: It's just a disease that's really how it can take a lot of different forms in different people and so you just never know what's going to come along with the uncontrollable motions. But you just don't know.
Jessica Green: Faith and persistence Hick says is what gets and her family through the day. I'm Jessica Green SJB News
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