I had no idea September was Sickle Cell Awareness Month, when I was thinking about my health blog post this week, I began to think about someone I worked with in the hospital who had Sickle Cell. I first hand experienced the effects of sickle cell and the pain.
It is estimated that:
- SCD affects 90,000 to 100,000 Americans.
- SCD occurs among about 1 out of every 500 Black or African-American births.
- SCD occurs among about 1 out of every 36,000 Hispanic-American births.
- SCT occurs among about 1 in 12 Blacks or African Americans.
(http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell)
SCD is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders. Healthy red blood cells are round, and they move through small blood vessels to carry oxygen to all parts of the body. In someone who has SCD, the red blood cells become hard and sticky and look like a C-shaped farm tool called a “sickle”. The sickle cells die early, which causes a constant shortage of red blood cells. Also, when they travel through small blood vessels, they get stuck and clog the blood flow. This can cause pain and other serious problems such infection, acute chest syndrome and stroke.
Over a year I worked with this patient and we found movement to release some of the pain and imagery, at one point the doctors turned to me and said she won't do anything for us, can you help. We had built a connection and though she was in alot of pain we explored imagery like riding a roller coaster, and slowly she would allow her hands to move. Before working with her I had not known anything about SCD, as I did some research I learned of a boy Keone Penn who underwent the first stem cell transplant, he was sucesfully cured of his sickle cell, though he did have other complications. I shared this with my friend and she became amazed and brought it up to the doctors. When I started to think about my health blog this week I thought of him and was very sadden when I typed in his name to find that this June he passed away.
The information I found says he had been assaulted which lead to his hospitalization and multiple complication caused his death. All very unclear, and sad.
He was such a hero to the sickle cell community, I hope his story still inspires other people with SCD.
I left my comments on a article/blog I found about his death.
Here is a short video about SCD:
REFERENCE:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-obituaries/keone-penn-27-medical-trailblazer-wanted-to-be-a-c/nYXxF/
Affeldt, D., Jodoin, S., MacDonald, A., & Smith, A. (2007). Life Now, Or Life Later?: The Promise of Stem Cells. Science In Africa.
Chicago
Over a year I worked with this patient and we found movement to release some of the pain and imagery, at one point the doctors turned to me and said she won't do anything for us, can you help. We had built a connection and though she was in alot of pain we explored imagery like riding a roller coaster, and slowly she would allow her hands to move. Before working with her I had not known anything about SCD, as I did some research I learned of a boy Keone Penn who underwent the first stem cell transplant, he was sucesfully cured of his sickle cell, though he did have other complications. I shared this with my friend and she became amazed and brought it up to the doctors. When I started to think about my health blog this week I thought of him and was very sadden when I typed in his name to find that this June he passed away.
The information I found says he had been assaulted which lead to his hospitalization and multiple complication caused his death. All very unclear, and sad.
He was such a hero to the sickle cell community, I hope his story still inspires other people with SCD.
I left my comments on a article/blog I found about his death.
Here is a short video about SCD:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-obituaries/keone-penn-27-medical-trailblazer-wanted-to-be-a-c/nYXxF/
Affeldt, D., Jodoin, S., MacDonald, A., & Smith, A. (2007). Life Now, Or Life Later?: The Promise of Stem Cells. Science In Africa.
Chicago
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