Medical History as an Adoptee
When I first started searching for my birth family, the top thing on my list of questions was finding out my family's medical history. My entire life, it seemed like, I was in constant pain. My back always hurt, which my mom attributed to the fact that my breasts developed early and were huge compared to the rest of my body. I had migraines and nosebleeds all the time. I was accident prone and ended up with sprained ankles and wrists a lot. At sixteen, I was hit with a mystery illness. Parts of my face went numb, but the doctor said it was just anxiety, so I saw a psychologist for a year. At seventeen, I developed non-illness-related pleurisy and carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists. I saw physical therapists for my back and my wrists. I had a breast reduction at 22, hoping to rid myself of the back pain. Nothing really worked and no one could figure out what was causing all this pain. Throughout this time, I clung to my non-identifying information, which said that my birth family was healthy and had no health concerns among the 15 children my birthmother’s mother had given birth to. Surely they would have said if someone had any terrible illnesses, right?
When my eldest son was born, he had a health issue right away. One of his legs was huge compared to the other one. As he grew, it became apparent that his whole left side was bigger than the right. We took him to specialists. Within three months, I developed gallstones and had to have my gallbladder removed.
We found my birth family the next month. In that first phone call, I asked the medical history question, just to be sure. My birth mom laughed, not unkindly. The forms she filled out didn’t specifically ask about her brothers and sisters' health issues, only if everyone survived childhood. They had all survived childhood.
Unfortunately, with fifteen siblings, there were a lot of health issues to go around — one brother has Parkinson’s, one had heart problem, two sisters had cancer. My biological grandmother had breast cancer and Alzheimer’s. My half brother also has heart problems. Since then, more family members have been struck by other illnesses as well.
On my birth father’s side, it turned out that he had no siblings that survived infancy. He himself had lung cancer from decades of smoking. His mother and father had died years before. One of my half sisters developed lung cancer as well. The other one has many of the same large joint issues that I’ve had over the years.
Eventually I met more of my birth mom’s side of the family. One of her sisters has made a fantastic genealogy book that includes the death certificates (and marriage and birth, but the death certificates are the ones of interest in this topic) of as many family members as she could get her hands on. I got to see it two summers ago at a mini family reunion. It was a treasure trove of information. She made a copy several years ago for my birth mom and when I was visiting her last summer; I took pictures of every page. Through that, I learned that my great-grandfather died of heart disease and my great-grandmother died of cervical cancer. My grandmother died of lung disease. My grandfather died of heart disease.
So today when I worry about my health and my kids' health, those are the starting points. Will they get my rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and migraines? Will they get their uncles lupus? Will they get the heart disease that is so rampant in the family tree? Or will they get lung cancer like on the other side of the family?
I’m so happy to have this information, even though it paints a dark picture of what our future health could look like. Knowing helps us avoid some paths that could lead to worse health. Prevention is something we can do now.
