When my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she often referred to her own mother's experience with breast cancer. She saw her mother die of this disease when she was 18 years old, and was horrified that her own experience would be similar. It was not the same....her mother did not have access to medical care and the technology that we currently have did not exist. Treatment consisted of surgery and cobalt treatments. "Early diagnosis" did not exist and any cancer was a death sentence.
After my first appointment with the Oncologist, I was referred to be a participant in the Hereditary Research Project.
Shortly thereafter, I received a bundle of forms to be completed that has lead me on a family tree search. Not only is this a treasure hunt to find who my relatives and ancestors are but it is also a challenge to find their medical history. More specifically I am looking for cancers of any type since the type of cancer that I have can be recurrent in a variety of sites.
And what have I learned?
- my mother, my maternal grandmother, and my maternal great-grandmother all had breast cancer....some in their early years.
- close relatives on both my father and mother's sides have had related cancers.
- I am enjoying the search for family stories in spite of the challenges in unearthing tidbits of information, mostly quite impersonal information.
- Family members with good memory of past history is sparse.
And what do I think about this?
- I had better do a "good job" in learning from the past so that my children and grandchildren can derive a benefit of knowing their risks for this disease.
- once I have the information "found", it should be shared so that someone else does not have to repeat the work that I am doing. I am not sure exactly how I will do this, but I "feel" a publication of some kind "comin' on!"
- stories and pictures about the individuals on the family tree bring the personhood of people that owned the names to light. However not all stories should be told perhaps...there have been some surprises and ah-ha's!
- and probably the greatest legacy one can leave their children is through the love, caring and sharing of values that will be built intrinsically (hopefully) into their character for future generations. It doesn't really matter what your name is, when you were born and when you die.....which is about what will be "known" of a person in 3 or 4 generations, but rather how you live your life while you are here, and what is contributed to future generations.
Next steps?
- submission of the documents.
- screening for testing
- testing includes genetic testing, counseling etc...
Stay tuned....
3 comments:
This is interesting. As you point out, usualy the only information we find for the generation three back and older, is birthdays, baptisms etc. The true value of the person is rarely revealed and yet it is the most interesting and most inspiring. In my own family website I have tried to determine who in the family has maintained or carried on the legacy of values that their ancestors worked so hard to instill. Even this most recent information is not easily extracted.
You are wise to research and then document all your findings so your children and grandchildren do not have to 'start from scratch', as you are doing. This is a most worthy endeavor and will say a lot about you as a person to future generations.
I appreciate this. When Terry first had cancer 30 years ago there were so many questions of past family history and we were so glad there did not seem to be a past history. When his dad was diagnosed when our boys were early teens...they asked again and then Terrence our son was diagnosed (which after more tests they undiagnosed)....but then they did blood work on our boys to see if they could find something that would indicate it was genetic.
Since then they will have learned so much more.
I appreciate the legacy you are choosing to value. I recently found one of those old glass plaques that our grandparents had in their homes. It reads Only One Life 'till soon be past, only what is done for Christ will last. It is hanging in our living room now because nothing could be more true.
As you shared this research project, I realized how your medical background helped you focus on the importance of sharing this information with future generations, but the most important, is exactly what you highlighted...It's not how long you live, but HOW you Live your Life today.
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