She had walked into my office that day and complained of pain in her bones. I thought it was something mild but it ended up being worse.
My friend is a Sickle Cell patient and this has impaired her quality of life to some extent. I m happy for her tho, despite the challenges, she climbs out triumphant.
In this post, I would love to share about sickle cell. Following the prompt for the week and the WHO commemoration.
Whenever I see a patient suffering from the symptoms of crisis and pain, the first thing that comes to mind is how they got this.
For two people who had the genotype that was not compatible I had to be together for them to have gotten kids with this condition.
Invariably they had love, and satisfaction, I'm probably hoping in a miracle that something would not happen.
That something was going to be that the probability of having a child with sickle cell disease which is one in four for every issue not to happen. We all believe in miracles sometimes the miracles most of us want are for something to happen but the miracle people believe in is the miracle for something not to happen. So when a child is born their prayer is for this charge genotype not to be SS.
For example, when a person with the genotype AS meets a person with genotype AS. They both have one in four tendencies or having children with every one child they have. So which time you're pregnant the child has only one out of four chances of being an SS. And I must say that means 25 out of 100 chances, 2500 out of ten thousand chances, 25000 out of 100000, 250000 out of 1 million.
Do you get the point now? That is too much to risk. And anyone who puts another person at this much risk is liable to have committed an offence.
It is sad to say that a lot of people are still very very ignorant of this, and they forge ahead with non-compatible relationships and do not consider the harm they put their unborn children into. Indeed, the genotype is not written on people's faces if only it were so. But what is the use of proper communication if these things are not discussed early. This might be an insult to those who fall in love at first sight, but there's not much truth to that because when you love something you grow to know that thing more. Love is not selfish to love considers orders even unborn children.
The moment your kind of love does not see the future then your love her search must be blind. We must wake up to this reality and make more people aware of the harm of genotype non-compatibility.
Sickle cell disease refers to some common blood diseases which cause the red blood cell to change its normal discus shape into a sickle shape hence causing occlusion of blood flow through to the different parts of the body and causing severe pain and dysfunction of those parts of the body. It also causes the breakdown of these abnormally shaped cells and leads to chronic anaemia.
This loss of the normal shape of the red blood cell is most commonly due to structural changes in the haemoglobin.
This change affects the cell membrane which eventually sickles.
The normal red blood cell would have a lifespan of about 90 to 120 days however really in this situation, the sickle cells only have about 10 to 12 days. This means that the cells would not live for so long and as such predisposes to low red blood cells also known as anaemia.
They end up having pain and swelling of hands and feet, they get more prone to infections and also those with very frequent crises might have stunted growth. In severe cases, they may have a stroke or visual impairment or even death.
They are often required to seek medical attention early and avoid their various complications in that way.
It is very possible to still live a very productive, long and meaningful life under these conditions.
And for those who don't know their Genotype. Do well to go find out and let it be a common thing to talk about with your potential partners.
One more thing about the stigma people living with hemoglobinopathies passes through. They do not have to be stigmatized from childhood into adulthood, like earlier stated they can leave their successful lives well into their old age.
I had hoped to see a few testimonials to this on hive but maybe later on.
Thanks for reading my post.
Any questions you have will be entertained in the comment section.
