Her Sickled Journey

“Caught Slipping” Whenever I feel ill I'd exhaust all my options to make my pain go away, drink hot water, use my painkillers, fill up my hot water bottle, find a distraction, sleep etc...and most times it works, but sometimes the pain is just so bad that I find myself calling 111 and they’d confirm that I should be calling 999......*sighs*. “Turn Yourself In” Whenever I’ve called 999 I’ve done it so reluctantly, but when I get a response (which is always & at the first ring may I add) I start to cry. I cry the tears caused by the pain which I’ve been fighting to hold back, I cry in the disbelief that my body could betray me to the point where I can no longer look after myself, and I cry because of the relief that has come from getting an answer, that the ambulance are on their way.  I’m such a different person when I’m ill and only a few of my friends can testify to this. You’ve seen me at my worst if you’ve seen me right before I’ve called the ambulance, it’s not cute, bu...

In the spirit of living my best life I started writing this en route to Miami with my oldest childhood friends and I feel like it’s only fitting to share with you the story of my worst crisis ( which I experienced while travelling ). I can’t even say for sure what it was that caused this crisis but imma tell you everything that happened leading up to it & you can let me know what you think. I spent a full 5 weeks of summer 2016 with family in New Jersey. It was a very fun holiday and I did so much during my time there that wasn’t until the penultimate day that I realised I haven’t been swimming yet. I was thinking how can I spend a whole 5 weeks on holiday and not go swimming once?!...So obviously I went swimming.  Mistake no. 1 - during this time I admit I was not a consistent user of my medicine that I was required to take daily (yikes), I only took it whenever I remembered/felt like it (yikes x2)  Mistake no. 2 - I spent quite a while in the pool as if the ...

You know them ones when you haven’t been ill for a while and you forget what it feels like? Well that was me and as I was approaching my 7th month without a crisis the cold weather handed me a rude reminder of what it’s like to be in pain. I woke up on the 1st of November with a sharp pain in my left leg. Describing a sickle cell crisis is something that I’ve always found difficult but I’ve watched YouTube videos where fellow sickle cell warriors would describe the the pain as “worst than giving birth/a constant “hammering”, “stabbing”, “throbbing” feeling/worst than getting shot”… I personally cannot describe the pain in those ways because I’ve never actually had those experiences before. But I can say that the pain is terrible. It’s disabling. Simple tasks that I could have easily done without a second thought, I can no longer do. I remember that day a simple 10 second walk to the bathroom took me a good 5 minutes.   When I fell ill I was in complete shock, and I kinda f...