[plthijinx]

Hey Guys, been awhile! Pardon resurrecting an old thread, but after I'd been sober almost 2 years I finally did 23andme.

I had gone for my eye exam prior to going for my flight medical in May of '17 and was diagnosed with fuchs dystrophy (a genetic eye condition). After some consideration I got the dna test and two months later, I met my mother, younger sister, my grandmother who is still raising hell at 93, my uncles, and numerous cousins.

A distant cousin contacted me a few days after making my 23andme profile public and he got me in contact with another distant cousin (both of their hobbies now that they are retired is tracing the family tree) and my other cousin had me upload my dna from 23andme to gedmatch.com and also ftdna.com.

It was on gedmatch.com where i found my uncle and was able to send him an email and he eventually called me after returning from a European vacation and got me in contact with my mother.

It was one of the best decisions that I've made outside of sobering up. When I met her and my family it was like I had been gone on a long vacation or work assignment and had just come home (if that makes any sense). This is my second chance with having a mother - some of y'all may remember my adoptive mom passed away while I was on that hiatus from society last decade. I am truly grateful that I did this test and found everyone. As for the eye deal? no one on my mom's side has it and my father doesn't want to meet me, which i totally respect, so I suppose I won't find that out for now.