My family has a history of breast cancer (great grandma, grandma, etc). Is there any test to find out if I'm vulnerable?
Yes. In general, it's important to determine the familial pattern of breast cancer that you potentially describe to determine if there is likelihood of an inherited risk of breast cancer due to underlying genetics.Breast cancer is so common that sometimes what may initially seem like an inherited risk is nothing more than coincidental “bad luck.”Genetic counselors and many physicians are pretty reliable at getting to the bottom of this which usually involves gathering extensive family history and or drawing a genetic family tree.In general, first degree relatives with breast cancer such as a mother, father, sister or brother are given the most weight. However, as you mention, a history on one side of the family such as maternal great grandmother and maternal grandmother, maternal aunts, etc., could also be very important.If there is likelihood of a genetic risk for breast cancer, there are genetic tests on the market which test for some of the more common genetic mutations that have been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer that may be of value to you.The most commonly tested and well known mutations are the BRCA1 and BRCA2, but there are many others. In a few cases, there is an obvious inherited risk of breast cancer without discovery of any known mutations.In any event, if you are at risk, make sure you have regular screening for breast cancer so that any possible cancer is detected early. This usually involves mammography, but may involve other modalities such as breast MRI and or ultrasound depending on your exact situation. Very early stage breast cancer is now almost always cured. I hope this helps.Ryan Polselli, M.D., Diplomate of the American Board of Radiology, Fellowship trained in Breast Imaging
Is it wrong for a grandchild to look for a birth grandparent, if the parent is not able to/can't/refuses?
First - add your details to the registries here http://www.isrr.net/ http://registry.adoption.com/ Check here for information - perhaps even contact for search help - http://www.originscanada.org/ Check here for other search help - and links to search angels - http://www.adoptioncrossroads.org/ I wish you all the very best with the search. You don't need to have a reason - apart from wanting to know where your mother came from. She is part of who you are.
Great Great Grandma is 1/16th Cherokee, what does that make me? We want to do Foster care?
Cherokee Nation has a few foster parents in our County here in California. Sometime back, they told me I could foster using them but only if I become a Citizen. So I got on a tangent to prove my ancestry using the Dawes. Saw my Great great Grandma and her parents on there. Yes, it is them. Even with their unusual names. Our County has tried to pursuade us into taking white children. Even despite there being a lack of Indian Foster Care parents to comply with the Indian Child Welfare act They seem to just leave them in group homes or the receiving home (except the toddler, babies) I am volunteering at the Receiving home and want to take a sibling set of Indian children into our home via foster care.With the goal to adopt. My husband comes in to see them via his job. He adores them. They are Cherokee (so they say at 9-10 yrs old) so the Cherokee Nation should not fight us (I think the tragedy with Baby Veronica had to do with the Cherokee Nation but either way, we want to avoid any situation similar) My Grandma is on the Dawes Roll as a Minor but I can't get proof it is her/ So now it's onto using Great Great Grandma which is undisputably her. Including her parents are listed (on a separate roll/card) We have no kids but have good medical insurance. We are not wealthy. If I could become a Citizen of Cherokee nation, we can start the process to get these kids. We would seriously consider moving to Oklahoma to possibly foster more children, (These kids we'd like to adopt) Our County keeps trying to veer us to other children on the phone. We did foster care about 20 yrs ago w/them. There are no other Indian Foster Care agencies near us. Sorry this is so long but my heart is really into this. Don't want to pay to order all the certified birth/death certificates for nothing but worry about the CDIB card blood quantum. Thanks so much.
How does one get medical records from a hospital that closed long ago?
Hospitals aren't required to keep medical records indefinitely, so the records may no longer exist. A summary of record retention requirements by state is here: https://www.healthit.gov/sites/d...If the hospital was part of a system, contact the system headquarters. Otherwise, contact the county or state health department.FAQ: Medical or Other Vital Records
Would you marry someone whose family has a history of mental illness?
My husband and I both did. We are not mentally ill, but we both have mental illness in our family histories.Oh, I do have ADHD, and have a tendency to get depressed or anxious, but I have received plenty of help for those things, and generally they have little impact on my day-to-day living (except that I’m a messy person). And my husband is a tad lacking in empathy, he cares a great deal about his family and the world, and he works on the empathy thing, and is willing to have emotional stuff pointed out to him.My father was bipolar and had serious anxiety and ADHD. My mother has some personality disorder issues. His mother had serious psychiatric issues, as well as medical problems that included having seizures that contributed to increasing brain disease. But she was a Holocaust survivor, and that surely had a lot to do with it. His father was also a bit lacking in the empathy department, but like his son he cared a great deal about his family.There are so many reasons for mental illness, some are genetic, many are the results of environment on top of genetic predisposition.Every family has issues. This one’s mother died of heart disease. That one’s father died from cancer. When my grandmother brought home the man she wanted to marry, my great-grandmother told her to go find another one, because he had “sick eyes.” That is, he wore glasses.And you know what? Both their children, and all the grandchildren did end up wearing glasses. Oh well. My grandparents were a good match. My grandmother was right when she told her mother she was not giving up on the guy, just because of the glasses.My mother-in-law was seriously mentally ill, and would call me sometimes to talk about her fears that a company was going to put out a hit on her son. I assured her they had bigger fish to fry. Sometimes she believed me, sometimes she didn’t.I still married him, and he still married me.And yes, some of those genes have plagued our children in some ways. But they have our support, and they work it out.Would I marry someone whose family had a history of mental illness? Yes, and I did. And given my own family’s issues, I would do it again. How can someone really understand what it is like to grow up in a family with “issues” unless they had some experience with that, too?
I'm a rape baby. How do I find my father if know one knows who he was?
I'm 25 years old and searching for my biological father. My mother was raped coming home from work in Chicago.She only got a quick look at him. Hoping one day I could at least know what he looks like or even his name. Wish someone could help me out on where to start. Wondering if there's any type of data bass where I could run my DNA and find a match?? Someone please help :-(