I need advice

G'MorningYes, sorry to say some people have inherited epilepsy. I don't know what MR is but I've been sz'ing too much the last few days and...and what? Sorry, I don't know what that is and my "thinkers" aren't at their optimum.I don't know the percentile odds of a person inheriting epilepsy if it is running in your family as it does ours or MR. What you might want to consider is going to a Geneticist, which is a doctor, which we've done, who can give you a lot of information about genetics and inherited things. We have several inherited things in our family. We did go to a geneticist twice, two different ones, a long time ago after my son was born with many diagnoses of potentially inheritable problems. There's a saying though about statistics I can't remember verbatim but it goes something like you can use statistics to look at something any way you want to see it. Did that make sense? I probably shouldn't be posting I've been having a lot of sz activity and I think I'm making sense but might not be - so excuse me if that is the case here. I'm typing very slowly hoping I'm saying what I'm thinking. I took statistics in college (which I should get a purple heart for!) and my professor used the analogy of looking at a cup 50% full or 50% empty.There are, to my knowledge at this time, 7 incidences of epilepsy in my family. Really bad huh? BUT do you know how big my extended family is - as an example? IOW does that mean that say 4% or 40% of our family have epilepsy. The answer is held in the fact that my family is HUGE. Which of course impacts the statistics of incidence, so far, in our family.There are some syndromes, diseases I wouldn't have children if they might inherit the same. For instance a friend of mine had two children. Neither she nor her husband knew his side of the family had Huntington's Chorea. When her children were small in ONE year her husband, his brother and father all died from it. She and I talked about it. She went to a geneticist and found out her children had a 50% chance of contracting a fatal disease. Worse, really, her children could be tested to find out if in their future they would contract it. Should her children get tested then or not? What a heck of a decision to have to make. To not keep you in suspence they both did, one at the age of 18, the other 21 years. One tested negative, the other positive. He's 29 now and so far disease free but he's coming up on the age where he's likely to start showing signs. He didn't marry, would not father children for this reason. The child who tested negative did marry, has two children but the fact she tested negative doesn't mean her children will test negative. Thus, if my family had Huntington's Chorea, and watching the decline and eventual death her husband had? No, in that case I wouldn't have children who might inherit it. Another for instance my son's asthma is severe. He's 28 this year which is branded in my memory because last year when he was 27 he nearly died from complications of asthma, lost 2/3's of his right lungs and 3 ribs. AND it was just one more horrible time we've gone through, wringing hands at the side of his bed, praying he'd make it through the night - because of asthma and complications of it. Weirdly enough I was diagnosed with asthma and epilepsy AFTER my son was diagnosed. We went to a geneticist after he was born because I wanted more children but I wanted to know - what are the chances of future children being as sick as my son. He said 50% of future children of ours could get asthma but the unknown factor was - would it be as bad as his. We thought it prudent that we have no more children. My husband got a vasectomy, then he got a revised vasectomy. I think I was destined to have the amount of children I have because I STILL had 3 children after the original vasectomy. A little trivia thrown in. One of those children got asthma but not nearly as bad as my son. She is now 24, an RN, a positively delightful person and when I've asked any of my children who have any of the many afflictions that can be and have been inherited in our family - have you ever had thoughts about me getting pregnant with you knowing you stood a chance of getting epilepsy or asthma they look at me like I'm NUTS! The answer I get, of course is the response often heard by mothers - the exasperated two syllable - MO--OM. Then they ask me if I'm nuts. My daughter said she wasn't mad she inherited asthma but she does wish she also would have inherited bigger boobs - at the age of 13 - said very soberly. Hope that's okay to say - I thought that was funny.You have excellent doctors in your country, and one of the geneticist we saw was Indian. Good luck, I do know inherited maladies is a heavy issue in child bearing years. Remember this ONE thing please. If you have inherited epilepsy in your family or inherited anything it is a VERY personal decision whether you or anyone in your family has children. YOU will be raising your child, no others and it's none of their business what you decide to do. I've found people were extremel generous in advice and comments about my procreating life, who had no responsibilities at all to any of us. That was just plain all out cruel. My name is not Mom Epilepsy, and my children's names aren't epilepsy either. It's a component of their lives. Not ALL of their lives. I have many daughters who haven't gotten pregnant yet and they're all adults. All of my not afflicted children and I talk about the possibility that they or their potential children might get this. One of my daughter's fiance's broke their engagement because of it but he was kind about it. I don't blame him. I'm glad he evaluated it, decided that he didn't want to risk it with his future children and stopped the possibility of procreating with my unafflicted daughter that could produce an epileptic child. I've had it all of my life but mild enough I just thought I was odd and was diagnosed when I was 50! A later in life diagnosis for me made everyone feel a lot more vulnerable as in - there was no "safe" age they could obtain and feel like - okay I made it, I'm not getting epilepsy. I BLEW EVERYONE'S SENSE OF SECURITY - including my own. You might read posts I've put up how my son's wife absolutely detests ME because her husband and one of her two children has epilepsy. She irrationally blames me - I'm sure out of frustration. It is killing enough to me that they have it! This has caused a great big wide chasm between us. That is another possible dynamic of inherited epilepsy then I wanted to share. BLAMING - can be a big component of anything inherited. I personally think it's stupid as He** and blaming, just blaming for anything, goes nowhere. It's like self poisoning.Again, good luck. It's a thorny issue.Gretchen

I have it inherited in my family. My moms cousin had it. My sister has it and her daughter. The issues with them is, her husband has migranes and my sister has epilepsy and you put them together and you have someone with epilepsy because of the two genes. The other daughter has only migranes. I was sick as a child and that is why I have epilepsy not inherited for me. But my daugher has tics and was checked for epilepsy but does not have it.Sure my children can carry the gene but does not mean their children will have epilepsy. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/EpilepsyApproach/Lisa