Unless the Korean adoptee has an open adoption, we have no medical history. For those of us adopted in the 70s and earlier, it isn’t likely that we have medical history because open adoptions were so rare. This hasn’t been a problem for me, but I was reading a post by Julia on her blog, Julia’s Jam and I realized how important it can be for someone to know their medical history.

I felt her annoyance while I was reading it. Every time I go into the doctor’s office, they give you a big list and you’re supposed to tell them if any of these things occurred in your family history. I dutifully mark n/a down the list and write in that I was adopted. I could write in that my father has high blood pressure and that my mother’s family has had cancer, but it really wouldn’t do much good.

I also felt her urgency. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to have leukemia and I won’t say I know how she feels. I think it’s rather insensitive when people who have no experience in what you are going through tell you that they know how you feel. I feel that way a lot when people tell me that they empathize with me as a Korean adoptee, etc… because I know they don’t really know. You can’t.

What I can tell you is that this post made me think really hard about my son. What would I do if my son was diagnosed with a disease and we needed that medical history or we needed a transplant? What would I do? I would move heaven and earth to find that medical history. It’s funny, this is a very practical and emotionless reason for conducting a birth parent search, but it caused the strongest reaction in me. I think that it serves to remind me that the strongest emotion I have will always be the desire to protect my child.

If you would like to comment, but not on this site, please feel free to e-mail me at adoptkoreablog@adoptionmail.com