A Sense of Wonder

Never Done: Have genetic testing. My body doesn't store iron. I don't have any ferritin, which is (source: wikipedia) "a ubiquitous intracellular protein that stores iron and releases it in a controlled fashion. This protein is produced by almost all living organisms, including bacteria, algae, and higher plants, and animals. In animals, it acts as a bugger against iron deficiency and iron overload." We are supposed to have between 10 and 291 nanograms/mililiter of ferritin in our bloods, and I have 1 on a good day. It's been this way for many years. I have taken iron supplements, been injected with weekly B12 shots, cooked on an iron frying pan, eaten kale, spinach, molasses, raisins and apricots, and none of this had had an effect. Then earlier this summer I asked myself for the first time (shehekhianu) WHY I might have such low ferritin. And it turns out that the two most common links are thyroid disease and celiac disease.

I'll try to avoid going all too-much-information on you here. We did some blood tests, found I have thyroid problems, and I started treatment. Celiac is harder to test for because I've been on a wheat-free diet for 18 months (because I feel much better without it) and yet in order to test positive for celiac, I would have to eat gluten for many months, so we could find the enemy within. To get a read on things sooner, and to help assess whether it is worth it to submit me to all this, my doc ordered some genetic predisposition testing for celiac and we just found but that yes, I carry a gene variant associated with celiac disease. I've been gene-mapped! I can't believe I didn't ask her to test if I share an ancestor with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Mario Batali. (I still haven't watched Faces of America. I'll put it on my list.) (I also haven't eaten at Eataly.)

On the one hand, this news and this genetic testing technology don't seem like big deals. On the other hand, I am old enough to think like my parents thought, and can still be amazed with the advances in technology over their, and my, lifetimes. My father was born in 1918, and my mother in 1929 -- and I was born in 1963. Let's think about all the things we didn't have when I was growing up. ATM machines, personal computers, IVF, the internet, Dippin' Dots. And if I'm honest, I like that I still have this sense of wonder, when I walk down the street and see everyone talking on their cell phones -- and I think about how it was when I grew up, when I went into the bank to deposit money into our savings account, and I typed my papers on a manual typewriter, and people who were infertile adopted, and I did my research in the public library, and we made our own ice cream with a hand crank, and the phone was connected to the wall in in the kitchen. I'm not trying to go all sentimental retro here -- because I love my computer, and I am incredibly happy that my friends have been able to have their fantastic children with the help of IVF, and I talk on my cell phone all the time. (I hate Dippin' Dots. They are made of chemicals and taste bad. I love ice cream though, and still eat it every day.) So no, I am not trying to go all sentimental retro; I'm just trying to explain about my sense of wonder when I see this on my lab report: !HLA-DQ2(DQA*05/DQB1*02): Positive.