David and I have been married for about two years now, and though I may be jumping the gun, I want to start thinking about starting a family… I’m one of the types that likes to be prepared and plan ahead… I have a touch of OCD, I think.
But therein, as the Bard would say, lies the rub. I may have more than just OCD. My father’s father died of Huntington’s disease.
That’s right. Huntington’s. The big one. Where, if it’s in your family, it’s there to stay, and complicate your life, and generally just be a big pain and make you question your existence, God’s existence, everything.
When my grandfather died of Huntington’s, I was very small and did not understand what was going on. I still don’t know very much about Huntington’s… my family didn’t talk very much about it.
They didn't talk about it at all. Want to know how I found out?
I was talking to my mom the other day about starting a family. She looked at me kind of funny and then started to cry a little. I couldn't believe it. I thought they were tears of joy, so I asked, of course, "Are you happy?"
Never have I been so shocked by an answer.
"No. No, baby. I'm not happy. I'm devastated. I don't know if you can do this. I think you might be devastated too. I'm sorry we had to do this, but we thought it was for the best."
Basically, she brought dad in, and he was SO MAD about being brought in, but he gave in, and they told me that my grandfather had died of Huntington's.
I had a big fight with my parents when I asked them how my grandfather had died – they had lied earlier and told me that it was old age. I don't know very much about Huntington's, but I figured it was something like that, just sped up and terrible. My father is adamant about not knowing his status in regards to Huntington’s. He absolutely does not want to know. But if I find out, then somehow he will know about it, so he's very against me getting the test. But that makes no sense, because I don't think that passing this gene on to my kids (if I have it) would be responsible at all.
Now the question is: should I get tested for the Huntington’s gene?
Maybe I’ll do some research first.
More later.
