2006-11-10
Children. Who’d have ‘em?My poor depressed brother sent me a message last night entitled ‘it doesn’t rain, it pours’. He’s not a huge amount better although he is managing to get into work and more or less function. His tow year old daughter is giving cause for concern again (can’t remember if I named her something before but let’s call her Emily):
“Had a not so great day in London at Guys Hospital with Emily. We were referred there after her eye test, for genetic investigation as they were querying whether she had something called Sticklers Syndrome. Apparently there’s a common link with poor eyesight & cleft pallets.
The opticians at the local hospital said they thought she was short-sighted (-8!) and the consultant at Guys said that because of the family history & her appearance (flat bridge of nose) she thought there was a high probability of Sticklers.
Sticklers can mean something as mild as short-sightedness at one end of the scale but historically it is also the primary reason for child blindness in the UK. There are other elements like poor hearing & joint issues in later life. The blindness is through detached retinas. The family history makes it all the more complicated as originally they were interested in our father & his cleft but now they’re just as interested in mother & her spontaneous retina detachment. They are querying whether they both have Sticklers. At the moment it’s a case of monitoring closely & if there’s any sign of early detachment us having laser treatment.
But we’re not completely convinced:
a) Five of her six direct genetic links are shortsighted
b) We’re not convinced that she is -8 because she doesn’t behave like a child who is (She certainly less clumsy that I am without glasses & I’m -5) & she seems to see too much
c) K had the same nose as her at her age & younger
Hopefully she’ll confound medical science again, but bloody hell this fatherhood lark is stressful.”
Oh, it is!
If you’re new to me –Emily had a cleft pallet when born, so did my father. My mother is totally blind – detached retinas, one at 11 the other at 37.
And with us Lynne had a big fight with Simon the other night, who still hasn’t found a ‘proper job’ twenty months after getting a good degree. It’s making him unhappy, although to be fair he isn’t just festering in the house – he’s got a job with a recruitment agency. I think he did seriously underestimate how much he should have done while at University to line himself up with something for after, but I’m not inclined to put him under any pressure: he’s doing that to himself already. Lynne knows I disagree with her stance, I think this time she knows she went too far too.
And Jack – permanent worry Jack. He had an offer from a friend to share a flat in town, rent free, which he appears to have turned down. He’s not sure he can cope on his own. I actually think it might have been a safe environment for him to make a start at moving out, always with the safety net of coming back when he wants to. But it has to be his choice, doesn’t it.
And Catherine: nearly fifteen and obsessed with boys. One in particular it seems. Last Friday night he was round at the house..after she said to me ‘he was kissing me and he keeps wanting to do things I don’t want … it’s very annoying…”
The very fact that she tells me this means she’s too young. But then Dad’s will always think their daughters are too young won’t they?