Birthday Surprises

When I married, in 1968, blood tests were required to check for sexually transmitted diseases but people rarely took much of their family health history into account. I knew, from my husband-to-be, that his family had once been tested for a condition that had to do with copper in the blood, but that his father had refused to have him and his sisters tested. From my family, I knew there were instances of diabetes, but really didn't know much then about type I and type II. And--I had a PhD in genetics! When our first child was born, I was shocked at my mother's first question: does she have a clubbed foot? what a birthday surprise! Now, I know a lot more about genetic conditions in my family, including the eye twitch that I develop when I am nervous and what we call the "Godfrey gene"--a great difficulty in translating written words into sound and vice versa. As my children married and give birth to their own children, I am more aware of the influence of family on the future. Maybe I'll even build a family health history some day.

Marie