Thank You Henrietta Lacks

I am a somewhat avid reader and find myself typically choosing a book over watching television most evenings. Several months ago, I heard a review on the radio for a book called "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot.

The book is about an African American woman descended from slaves who moved with her children from the rural South to the Philadelphia area so her husband could make a better living working in the steel mills. Shortly after she made the move and gave birth to her youngest child, she developed quickly-growing cancerous tumors. Although the doctors treated her aggressively, she died in her early 30's - leaving her youngest children with no memory of their mother.

Without her knowledge or consent, her doctor removed samples of her tissue and attempted to do what doctors for many previous generations had done - grow cells in a lab for research purposes. Mrs. Lacks had something exceptional in her genetic makeup and her cells not only survived, they thrived. Her doctor ended up creating an entire industry based on selling her cell samples and he and many other doctors became wealthy off the HeLa cells (at they time they took the first two initials from the patients first and last names to identify the cells). She nor her family had any idea for many, many years. They only found out due to a chance meeting with someone in the industry who made the connection between HeLa cells and the family members. When doctors wanted to obtain samples from her children and relatives, the doctors didn't quite tell the family the truth either. The family has never been acknowledged nor received a penny of compensation. In fact, many of them can't even afford insurance or medical care.

Why am I telling you this? Well, because in addition to developing drugs and cures for things like cancer, polio, HIV, STD's and a plethora of other viruses and bacteria, the life that's growing inside me now and all the other women who undergo IVF may have never occurred without the contribution of the Lacks' family. 

Even today (or at least when the book was published in late 2010), my understanding is that when you have a medical procedure, in general, your "genetic waste" is generally considered property of the doctor and they can do pretty much whatever they want with it. Obviously, embryos are a different story.

Today, I just want to say thank you to Ms. Skloot for taking a complex subject and making it fascinating. I also want to thank the Lacks family. You helped create many, many miracles and make many, many dreams come true!

OTHER NEWS
In other news, I had my levels checked yesterday and things are still stable. My P4 dropped a little from last Wednesday from 34 to 30.3 and my E2 is still hanging out in the 325 - 350 range. So, they are going to keep me on all my drugs for now and test again when I go in for my first u/s next week.

Had a wee bit of spotting again last night - but I probably wouldn't have even noticed if I wasn't looking for it. By this morning it went away.

Each day we're getting closer to a heartbeat! Still counting down the hours!