I didn't give genes or DNA much thought before I had children. I don't know if many prospective parents do. Once the baby is born, we are quick to notice her (I use "her" since mine are "hers") eyes are like yours or her toes are like her dad's. The outwardly physical things (and later personality traits) are easy to see. As the child gets older, other things come into play. Will the child inherit your poor eyesight or your teenage acne issues? Will she excel in math or be talented in art? With the cancer, I worry about the possibly I could have passed a gene on to my girls that would raise their chances of getting breast cancer. Guilt is something all parents deal with. Many times it can be warranted, but other times it is not. You blame yourself for things that are logically out of your control or or decisions made before additional factors were made known. It really tore me up to think I could cause this for my girls. I know that most women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of the disease. And, I know that I didn't know I would get cancer when I decided to have children. That is beside the point. You want your child to have a perfect world, a perfect life regardless of how impossible that is. It hurt to think I could have messed that up for them. I decided to have the blood test for the BRCA 1 and 2 gene. If I had the gene, then they needed to know they too could have it and their risk increased. I am happy to say test came back negative. They are at a higher risk for getting the disease, since I have it and my mom and aunt had it. They will be screened more closely, as I had been. There could still be a gene we have that does increase the risk for cancer. At this time, there is no test for other breast cancer genes. I can live with that.
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