YAY! IT"S A PEDIGREE!!!

Ah, Blog world, I thought you might enjoy the above visual. That's right, it's a pedigree!! After much research, I was able to compose a pedigree showing the history of Usher's Syndrome in my family. It all started back with my grandparents. My Grandma on my dad's side is a carrier of Usher's, and so is my Grandfather on my mother's side. This makes them both carriers, Usher's syndrome being an autosomal-recessive trait. This leads to me, that little black circle in the FII generation, who unfortunately inherited both the recessive alleles from my parents. My siblings are luckier, my younger brother is a carrier while my older brother is not affected at all!!! Using a punnet square, if my parents were to have another child it would have a 25% chance of not being affected, a 50% chance of being a carrier, and a 25% chance to inherit Usher's. No matter who my unaffected  brother marries, none of his children will be affected by Usher's although some could be carriers, again, depending on who he marries. My younger brother could pass the syndrome on if he marries another affected individual, or a carrier. As for me, the only chance of my children not being affected is if I marry another completely unaffected man, though my kids would still ALL be carriers. This is all according to the punnet squares. A girl can dream, but realistically, I should probably not have kids before having my future husband get tested, if I  decide to have kids at all. No child should have to suffer from Usher's syndrome if I can prevent it.