💛 When Rare Diseases Disrupt Caregiving (AARP Article)

[Winter2025VA]

FROM THE ARTICLE.

When a Rare Disease Disrupts Midlife: What Caregivers Need to Know.

How to provide care through the uncertainty that follows a rare-disease diagnosis.

By Paul Wynn, AARP. Published August 11, 2025.

Ann Eastman was 58 when her fingers began turning ghostly white in the cold. At first, she chalked it up to Utah’s harsh winter, but the persistent pain and aching eventually drove her to seek medical advice.

Within two weeks, she received a diagnosis that would upend her life: scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease that causes the skin and connective tissues to harden and tighten, often affecting vital organs like the lungs and heart.

USE LINK BELOW TO READ THE ARTICLE.

https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/medical/rare-diseases-caregiving.html