Today is Fragile X Awareness Day, so my first link is an article I wrote myself and put up on TCPalm:
Two is Tricky - Especially for St. Lucie Toddler with Fragile X
Go there and then post to your facebook wall!
Of course, others are posting as well...
Fragile X Files
My father and uncle passed on their fragile X chromosome to their daughters. A female first cousin is a carrier with a daughter with Fragile X. My half sister is a carrier with a son with Fragile X. There are other members of my father's family who have not been diagnosed but are suspected to be affected by Fragile X. My cousin and half-sister are older than me and had already had their children and their children had been diagnosed and yet I DID NOT KNOW ANY OF THIS UNTIL MY EARLY TWENTIES! But at least I knew. They didn't.
It was my sister-in-law, a nurse, who made the connection that if my nephew had Fragile X, I too should be tested. I researched Fragile X and knew I must be a carrier. Kevin and I talked about this before we got married and then shortly after we got married (in 2001) I did the genetic testing and counseling which confirmed what I already knew.
We are so glad we knew. That we began our family planning knowing. We chose adoption, but if we had decided to "play the odds" at the beginning we knew, should we have a child with FX, what we needed to do to best meet his needs. We are so glad that when we were surprised by pregnancy we weren't surprised by Fragile X.
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