DNA sample is getting FedExed tomorrow
Nov. 26th, 2007 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flexagonSpit. Spitspitspit. That's me spitting a two-milliliter DNA sample for 23andMe.com to analyze in gruesome detail. Here it is, mixed with DNA stabilizer of some sort.
The 23andMe.com folks say they need saliva instead of a cheek swab because they need a lot of cells, by the way, which is a bit weird since I didn't think saliva necessarily HAD cells in it. The Wikipedia page on saliva says that indeed, it's mostly water, electrolytes, mucus and enzymes, but there also may be "possibly as much [sic] as 8 million human cells per mL", so I am shipping away possibly as many (ahem) as 16 million of my cells. I'm still wondering WHAT cells; maybe some immune-system cells?
I forgot to mention another good reason I have for getting analyzed, and that's Birdie, my biological child. Any genetic condition I have, I could have passed on to her; and so I feel obligated to tell her parents anything of particular note that I find out. We certainly were thinking about genetic quality at the time of deciding to do the egg donation (and decided not worry too much about my father's probable cancer-genes, btw, because V doesn't have much cancer in his family) but this level of knowledge just wasn't available in 2000. Mind you, I'm not saying this good reason has anything to do with my actual decision, merely that it is a good reason that happens to agree with my unreasonably strong need to know.
Had a brief talk about this with some people over the weekend (one a doctor, one currently in med school); the one who was a doctor says that the specific cancers that wiped out my grandparents (colon and esophagus) are theoretically not hereditary. It's amazing how much I don't care about that little tidbit of information, at this point. I'm going to be finding out my REAL probabilities soon.
One more thing -- humor me. When I first posted about 23andMe.com, I really thought everyone and their dog would have something to say about it. If you didn't comment and/or don't think this is interesting, why not!? I'm really missing something here. I understand people are thinking deep thoughts about the right not to know their genetic information, but you can't un-know the fact that you COULD now know it. Either you don't have $1009, or you're now choosing not to learn things about yourself, and I'm probably the one who put you in that position (yeah, it was a top news item at Wired for a couple of days, but that was after my post). I think even that much is fascinating.
The 23andMe.com folks say they need saliva instead of a cheek swab because they need a lot of cells, by the way, which is a bit weird since I didn't think saliva necessarily HAD cells in it. The Wikipedia page on saliva says that indeed, it's mostly water, electrolytes, mucus and enzymes, but there also may be "possibly as much [sic] as 8 million human cells per mL", so I am shipping away possibly as many (ahem) as 16 million of my cells. I'm still wondering WHAT cells; maybe some immune-system cells?
I forgot to mention another good reason I have for getting analyzed, and that's Birdie, my biological child. Any genetic condition I have, I could have passed on to her; and so I feel obligated to tell her parents anything of particular note that I find out. We certainly were thinking about genetic quality at the time of deciding to do the egg donation (and decided not worry too much about my father's probable cancer-genes, btw, because V doesn't have much cancer in his family) but this level of knowledge just wasn't available in 2000. Mind you, I'm not saying this good reason has anything to do with my actual decision, merely that it is a good reason that happens to agree with my unreasonably strong need to know.
Had a brief talk about this with some people over the weekend (one a doctor, one currently in med school); the one who was a doctor says that the specific cancers that wiped out my grandparents (colon and esophagus) are theoretically not hereditary. It's amazing how much I don't care about that little tidbit of information, at this point. I'm going to be finding out my REAL probabilities soon.
One more thing -- humor me. When I first posted about 23andMe.com, I really thought everyone and their dog would have something to say about it. If you didn't comment and/or don't think this is interesting, why not!? I'm really missing something here. I understand people are thinking deep thoughts about the right not to know their genetic information, but you can't un-know the fact that you COULD now know it. Either you don't have $1009, or you're now choosing not to learn things about yourself, and I'm probably the one who put you in that position (yeah, it was a top news item at Wired for a couple of days, but that was after my post). I think even that much is fascinating.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 11:44 pm (UTC)