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Friday, December 15, 2006

A genetics lesson

Yesterday we paid a visit to the genetic counselor. I didn’t know there was such a thing. She was small and nerdy, with a bronchitis-impaired voice and big binder full of diagrams of chromosomes and cells.

“The P53 gene puts the brakes on cell growth,” she said. “We think it’s possible you may be missing that gene.”

She did her best to explain what that meant, but her tangents confused the key messages. (There’s a reason medical people aren’t in marketing and vice versa.) I did enjoy one particular tangent, though.

She pointed at Casey and me.

“Now if you two ever decide to have children, this could be important,” she said. “You would want to consider testing embryos or sperm for the P53 mutation.”

I almost made an inappropriate joke about how we keep trying to get pregnant… Or about how I don’t have any embryos to spare…

But I kept it in.

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Casey is now posting updates on caseyquinn.com.

Posted by Aaron on December 15, 2006 3:58 PM