Did you have breathing problems when you were little?

Just a couple of lines on this. My mom is gone now, but she used to tell me stories of how I slept on her stomach my first year and half because I would quit breathing. I was born with bronchitis and an enlarged heart. My breathing problems pretty much disappeared for about 55 years. I wish I had listened closer now.

Also, try to get a list of childhood diseases. While your parents are young enough to be reasonably sure. My mom was in her 80s when she sent me a list of my childhood problems. If you get sick in your late 50s on up, will you be able to fill out the forms correctly? Mom said I had Chicken Pox as a baby,
but I got them again at age 31. Some people say you cannot get them twice, some have told me you can. Find out today, don't wait.

I was born with respiratory distress syndrome aka hyaline membrane disease (6 weeks premature) and had childhood asthma that disappeared by the time I was 6.

You can get chicken pox twice if the case you have as a child is very mild. My uncle had it when my mom and aunt did as children, then got it again when he was in his 20s and I was a child. And one of my co-workers had it as a child, but almost died the second time when he got it in his early 30s.

But I've essentially only had two doctors my whole life ... a big practice treated me from birth until about 20 in different departments, then when that practice split up, I went to one of the doctors who used to be part of it, until I moved to Albuquerque. So that first doctor has *all* my records from my whole life, including my mother's records from when she was in the hospital after having me. I've seen them. (Which reminds me, I do need to make sure they were all faxed to the new doctor here.) So in any case, I don't have to rely on my mom to know when I had what.

Dave,

Was going thru this same issue myself. My mother now gone but she was the only one who could really explain to me why I went to hospital for a nose operation at age 11 (or thereabouts).

I have always considered myself fit & healthy but had forgotten about the nose op. For myself, also loved swimming underwater & did it a lot. I have wondered if that plus later relaxation breathing exercises may have had anything to do with current tendancy to stop breathing at night.

I agree to, to anyone, get all the info you can from your parents, family health issues etc: as one they are gone and unless you have other sources so is their knowledge and part of your history.

DSM

Amen,
My family is .....very private, not sure what term to use. My Dad never knew how old he was because my Grandmother was very vain. None of the kids knew.

My brother did not ask Mom and he has no idea. Everyone else is dead.

Anyone reading this is foolish not to call their parents NOW.

Totally agree with all said above. In my family, and I'm sure this will hold true for many others of the baby boomer age range, the problem is that our parents didn't ask questions. If the doctor said Darthlucy needs these pills, Darthlucy got those pills, no questions asked. MD = GOD. So if I try to get information from my mother, it's usually pretty sketchy. The worst example is that she had several miscarriages before she had me, and "thinks she took something" while pregnant with me. Now there's this whole big thing with moms being given DES to prevent miscarriages in the 60s, and increased cancer risk for the now 40-yr-old women. No clue if that's what she took.

Compounding this is the fact that my mother was adopted, so I have no clue and no way of finding out her medical history.

So, yea, if you have the ability to get information about your medical history, get it while you can!

I ask my mother about family medical history and never get the same answer twice... sometimes it's one thing and sometimes it's something else... but usually it's whatever they called it isn't necessarily what truly it was.

Needless to say I take what she's told me when it comes to medical history... take it into account, and realize that she might not have all of the facts.

You might ask your mom two or three times, writing the things down. Take the average of them I guess. If she says you had Mumps 2 out of 3 times, you may have had them.

If you are adoped, I don't know. I adopted two of my daughters and I worry
about those things...for them. My oldest daughter, with my genetic code was diagnosed with MS a few years ago. Three of my first cousins also have MS and several doctors have suggested it would explain my problems. Too easy to assign wrong diagnoses. I had allergies in 2000, in 2007 I do not. I was diagnosed with Asthma in about 2004, in 2007 the number one Respiratory Hospital in the USA says I probably don't have asthma.

My biggest clue was my mom telling me I was born with Bronchitis and I slept on her stomach for the first year and a half. For reasons I can't explain, my lungs were ok until her death in 2000. Then my lung problems started up again.