Hello Family,
I recently was reminded of the importance of knowing your family's health/medical history - not because I recently skipped over that section on a medical form - but because my grandmother recently found out that there's a malignant tumor on her left colon (aka colon cancer).
During this past family reunion in Long Beach, we learned from our cousin, Theodore Slaughter, that A.C. Williams Sr. (my grandmother's grandfather) also had colon cancer. My grandmother never knew that, and so when she would fill out medical forms she never put colon cancer as a possible risk. Had she known this information and relayed it to her doctors she would have had regular colon screenings and been more conscious of the levels of fiber in her diet - perhaps the growth of a tumor could have been totally avoided.
Here is the historical family health info that I know:
*A.C. Williams Sr. - Colon Cancer
*Eliza Durham Williams - Heart Disease
*A.C. Williams Jr. - Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Died of a Stroke
*Isabel Williams - Cervical Cancer, Diabetes, Alzheimer's Disease
Links:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/medical-history/HQ01707
http://www.stayinginshape.com/4drhs/libv/p56.shtml
