Family Health History

When I recently went to get my eyes checked and get a new prescription for glasses, I thought it was going to be a routine eye exam. I was quite shocked when the doctor got all serious and started telling me that because of the shape of my eyes, I am at higher risk for “acute closed angle glaucoma”. It is a congenital thing, having to do with the actual shape of my eyes and the fact that I am far sighted. He had actually told me this two years ago and I blocked it out of my mind. This time, he felt my eyes looked a little worse and scheduled some very intensive tests. My mind was spinning when I left his office because I kept remembering the stories my grandmother (Margaret Howes) told me about her mother (Margaret Peters) going blind: “She cried and cried and cried and then her tears dried up and she went blind.” I asked my mother if she remembered this, but her grandmother died before she was born and she did not remember the stories. She called her last surviving aunt to see what she remembered and Aunt Franny (Frances Hugleman) said her mother was living with her (Fran’s) sister Sal (Sally Ennis) in Medford, Massachusetts, and one morning Sal went in to wake her up. She said “Ma, are you going to get up?” and her mother said, “Why? It’s the middle of the night!” Sal said, “No, it’s bright daylight!” and that is when they knew she was blind. My mother also called her sister Kay (Catherine Reinold) who might be old enough to remember the event, and she said she remembered the same stories as I. The doctor told me that if I had an attack, I would be in excruciating pain and then within hours I would go blind. Since neither of these stories mentions being in pain, maybe my great grandmother had a totally different condition, and in 1940 it might not have been fully diagnosed. However, the doctor did tell me to put warm compresses on my eyes twice a day to “save what is left” of the little pores that allow tears and oil to be secreted and create a film over my eyes when I blink. I think this problem is more related to excessive viewing of computer screens than anything genetic. However, since the risk of glaucoma is a genetic factor and I know of at least one possible case in the family, I was glad to have that knowledge.
I found some interesting articles on the web about recording one’s family history for health reasons. Here is a short and simple 5 step article to explain how to do it: http://amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/family-history/why-you-should-research-your-family-history-and-your-family-health-history.html
I am going to read through the information I have available for my family and see what health conditions show up as trends in the family tree. I want to record this information for my children and grandchildren so they have as much information available to them as they might need.