Monday, July 05, 2004
Find that Gene!!
Last week I went out for coffee with my wonderful cousin. She's 33 and the daughter of my first cousin on my mother's side of the family. I thought we were just getting together for a chat, as we try to do every now and then despite our hectic schedules. She went and got the coffee, sat down and said she had wanted to see me to tell me something important: she too has just been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the hip.
That confirms the extremely strong hereditary component of this awful disease. When I was a child, my mother blamed her arthritis on poor nutrition during her childhood in czarist Russia. I blamed it on "bad architecture" and the shoes attached together with a bar that I wore at night to correct my pidgeon toedness. But here's my beautiful cousin, in great shape, studying to be a yoga teacher, for pity's sake, and she too has the family affliction. Indeed, she is the same age that I was when I received my own diagnosis.
I remember studying basic genetics in high school and learning about Mendel and his plants. It makes me think of my own family: two sisters, both with OA, each have a daughter. One has OA, the other doesn't. The daughter of the unaffected daughter has OA (like her grandmother). My cousin also has a brother who is 29. So far, he has displayed no symptoms of the disease and my gut tells me that he won't. I certainly hope not, and I hope my two boys don't develop it either.
My cousin is understandably distressed. However, I feel that she is being very proactive by continuing with her yoga, doing special exercises prescribed by the physiatrist, wearing orthotics, benefitting from my experience, etc. If I had known what she knows now, perhaps I would have been in better shape today. I do think, however, that my "coup de grace" came when I had two children. Pregnancy is not kind to the body and it's particularly hard on the hips. I was straight with my cousin. I told her to seriously weigh the pros and cons of having children. Like virtually all parents, my children are the joy of my life, but would I have had them if I had known the effect they would have on my body? I don't know.
At the ripe old age of eleven, my elder son has decided to be a medical researcher. I just might encourage him to study the genetic component of OA.
That confirms the extremely strong hereditary component of this awful disease. When I was a child, my mother blamed her arthritis on poor nutrition during her childhood in czarist Russia. I blamed it on "bad architecture" and the shoes attached together with a bar that I wore at night to correct my pidgeon toedness. But here's my beautiful cousin, in great shape, studying to be a yoga teacher, for pity's sake, and she too has the family affliction. Indeed, she is the same age that I was when I received my own diagnosis.
I remember studying basic genetics in high school and learning about Mendel and his plants. It makes me think of my own family: two sisters, both with OA, each have a daughter. One has OA, the other doesn't. The daughter of the unaffected daughter has OA (like her grandmother). My cousin also has a brother who is 29. So far, he has displayed no symptoms of the disease and my gut tells me that he won't. I certainly hope not, and I hope my two boys don't develop it either.
My cousin is understandably distressed. However, I feel that she is being very proactive by continuing with her yoga, doing special exercises prescribed by the physiatrist, wearing orthotics, benefitting from my experience, etc. If I had known what she knows now, perhaps I would have been in better shape today. I do think, however, that my "coup de grace" came when I had two children. Pregnancy is not kind to the body and it's particularly hard on the hips. I was straight with my cousin. I told her to seriously weigh the pros and cons of having children. Like virtually all parents, my children are the joy of my life, but would I have had them if I had known the effect they would have on my body? I don't know.
At the ripe old age of eleven, my elder son has decided to be a medical researcher. I just might encourage him to study the genetic component of OA.
