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Part of: My Quest for Pregnancy Genetics |
Date Posted: 12-29-2005 at 08:09 AM Comments(0) |
| I called my Mom last night for our weekly update chat. Within 2 minutes of the conversation, I knew something was wrong. But first we had to get through our strange family ritual of discussing the weather. NOTHING can be discussed until past, present and future temperatures, precipitation, amount of sunlight and whether or not we need the flannel sheets yet has been dealt with. Once we got through that (she has snow, we do not; we have our flannel sheets on, she does not) I asked her what was up. Turns out she had been to the doctor to have some tests done and has been diagnosed with Diabetes. We talked for a bit about the next steps that her doctor would be taking, and what effects this would have on her life, and my father’s menu options! As coincidence would have it, not more then a half-hour later, the Canadian Diabetes Society ran a TV commercial warning you of your increased risk of developing Diabetes if you mother, father or sibling had it. WOW! My chances of getting just increased by 25%…. I wonder what that means for my son, if his Grandma has it? And then the light bulb went off! I’m adopted…. I’m not genetically related to my Mother. And my son is adopted….. he’s not genetically related to me or my Mother! So that means that I don’t have an increased risk of getting Diabetes…. Or do I? I’m not really sure. I found my birthmother about 5 years ago. We are not very close, but exchange letters and phone calls once or twice a year. She’s been able to answer my medical questions from her side, but she will not tell me who my birth father is, nor is she able to give me much medical information on him, other then he died of cancer about 4 years ago. I don’t even know what kind of cancer, or what the odds are that it increases the risk of future generations. Now we are looking at adding yet another possible unknown genetic background into the mix. If I get pregnant from an unknown donour, just how much genetic background will we get? Will we ever be faced with needing medical information and not being able to get it? Is this fair to a child? I grew up answering every medical background question and filling out every form with the simple word “UNKNOWN” and every time I did, it reminded me once more that there was a piece of my history that I did not have and may never have. I’ve been lucky…. I’ve never been faced with a situation where I needed an answer other then UNKNOWN. With my son, we have an open adoption with his birthmother, but the only information we have on his birthfather is a first name. But if anything were to ever come up, I’m confident that his birthmother could get in touch with him and get us answers. So my son, while also adopted, won’t have as many UNKNOWNs on his forms. Thus the struggle continues. Does my need to be pregnant out weigh the needs of a future child? Does the unknown genetic background of an unknown donour out weigh the risks of using a known donour? How do you decide? |
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