That is a great idea, I saw on TV an announcement that they were going to make a disc to fit on the backside of your watch that had all your medical info on it - I don't believe they could get all mine on one, lol. delilah ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Nix" <lowhandicap@gmail.com> To: <aljeffer@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 3:23 PM Subject: Re: [ALJEFF] What did you get from your parents? |I hate to rain on all the fun we've been having, but this looks like a good | place for a PSA (Public Service Announcement). | | >From my own experience, let me suggest that when you're doing family | research, particularly your mother's and father's surname lines, find out as | much medical history as you can. Find out if heart disease, cancer, etc. | "run" in your family. | | In my case, knowing that my mother's side of my family has a strong | incidence of vascular and heart disease saved my life. My mother and two of | her brothers had surgery for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA). My mother | and one of her brothers have had strokes. My sister has had a brain | aneurysm. Knowing that, I had myself tested and found that I also had an | AAA. By having annual scans run, I was able to catch it when it started to | "balloon." In 2002, I had surgery to repair my AAA. Without the surgery, I | could (and likely would) have died. And there was never a single symptom. | | I didn't pay as much attention to the tendency toward heart disease and in | 2003 had an "emergency" quadruple bypass when it was discovered that I had | blockages as high as 99%. And my only symptom had been "indigestion" (which | was really angina). | | I still may not be able to stop the onset of further incidents, but I do | take medications to control high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I see | my cardiologist twice a year. I still have regular scans for aneurysms. | And, above all, I make sure that every doctor I see knows about all of | these. | | And when you find these sorts of things in your family medical history, | share that knowledge with your siblings and cousins - who are also carrying | those same genes. | | Jim Nix | | | ------------------------------- | To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ALJEFFER-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message |