Here to Stay -- Living With Sickle Cell Disease

My name is Noah Alexander Williams and I am living with sickle cell anemia disease. Sickle cell isn't really a widely talked-about disease but it's so real and epic that it should be. Sickle cell anemia disease is a grasping chronic sickness that doesn't let go. Unfortunately I have it and have had it since I was born. I don't know life without sickle cell disease and therefore I don't know life without pain -- the daily aches, the crucial crises that come out of nowhere. Sickle cell is never predictable. Of course this disease has impacted my life beyond words. I've learned to cope with it. Just to be clear, sickle cell is a genetic trait. Sickle cell disease is a severe illness that occurs in people who inherit the sickle cell gene from both parents. When I was a few months old, my pediatrician predicted that I would have my first sickle cell crisis at six months. She was right. A sickle cell crisis happens because the red blood cells aren't the normal round shape. They are long and pointed, like a sharp edged knife (or a sickle). When those sharp edges get wedged into blood vessels, they block the flow of blood and cause excruciating pain throughout the body. I don't remember my first sickle cell crisis, but I remember a lot of them. I've been living with this disease ever since. There are three levels of sickle cell: SS, SC and SB. Each of these levels refers to a specific gene inherited from one's parents. SB is the mild side of the disease -- referred to as Thalas...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news