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 ...

The love I have for travelling is like no other. Travelling is something that I am fortunate enough to do frequently and it brings me so much joy. I love immersing myself in different cultures and experiencing different ways of living. However as someone living with sickle cell, travelling can be a completely different experience, for me it’s definitely a more stressful one. I’m writing this on a plane, Nigeria bound to spend the Christmas holiday with my family, and while preparing for this trip I was reminded about the worst crisis that I’ve ever experienced in this my 21 years of living. This crisis was on a plane and I was extremely underprepared for it, so to prevent this unpreparedness for anyone else I’ve listed a few things below that, as an individual with sickle cell, have to be considered while travelling: beforehand, during and while you’re abroad. (btw I’ll talk about my worst crisis in another post). First Things First   Pack for Every Situation - Tito a...

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...

There are around 12,500-15,000 people in the UK living with sickle cell and there are approximately 240,000 people in the UK with the sickle cell trait and around 60% of these people are based in London alone. Even with these high numbers, meeting someone who simply knows what sickle cell is is an experience for me that comes once in a blue moon.  I was recently invited to my friend's church where I met a guy with sickle cell and speaking to him brought me so much relief. Relief in the sense that I was reminded that I’m not the only one going through what I’m going through. I could spend days trying to describe the pain that comes from living with sickle cell but to someone who doesn’t have it the descriptions are basically meaningless, as words alone are not enough, but he could actually understand the pain that I’ve felt because he’s felt it too and we could laugh at the different ways we manage to look after ourselves. The encounter was very brief but the effects are lo...

Soooo yesterday marked 5 months since my last sickle cell crisis!!! *milly rocks* Meaning 5 months without hospital admissions, 5 months without the need of life saving blood transfusions, 5 months without using pain killers. 5 months may seem like a very short period of time but for someone who is used to falling ill at least once a month and frequent hospital admissions this is a serious milestone, and a day doesn't go by without my prayers being filled with thanks. There are many things I could have been doing much earlier in my life to improve my health. However, it has only been until recently that I started to make real conscious steps in ensuring that I am in the best possible health. I truly believed that using my medicine was the only way I could ensure this. I have learnt that this is not the case at all and there are actually so many things that can be done in addition to improve my general health and prevent a crisis. I’m sure my fellow sickle cell warriors woul...