Hello Everyone,
Sickle Cell Anemia was a disease that
my cousin has had to deal with for as long as I can remember and has recently
passed away last year. WebMD states, “Sickle Cell disease is inherited from a
parent, which gives the child the sickle cell anemia trait” (WebMD). From what I
can regulate, the disease came from my maternal grandmother. I do not know if
she received it from her mother or her father. Anyway, it did not contract to
all of her children but it did pass to some of them. She had ten children. The trait
by passed my mother, so my sister and I did not contract any parts of the
disease or the trait. It did pass to my mom’s sister and this is how my cousin
had to deal with it. It seemed to affect him worse than others and he had other
issues going on, as well. While my grandma was living, she was honored at a
sickle cell anemia banquet, as being the oldest known person with the disease. She
died at 83 years of age. I do not know all he had to deal with but I do know
that he stayed going to the doctor and was always tired daily. I could see his
pain. Due to this, he became depressed and was on lot medications. Sickle Cell disease
is a shortage of red blood cells, weakness, tiredness and their eyes appear to
have jaundice. It is treated to help manage pain and taking antibiotics to
prevent infections” (WebMD, para. 3-10). “Anemia can cause shortness of
breath, fatigue, and delayed growth and development in children” (Genetics Home
Reference). This disease can cause anguish for the person
who has to deal with it, as well as, the family members and their friends. Berger
states helpful information about Sickle Cell, which is “1 in 11 African-Americans
and 1 in 20 Latinos are carriers” (Berger, 2013, 85).
Looking at another part of the country
on this matter was new information to me. I had never looked this up before. From
researching on The Times of India, it states, “Sickle Cell disease is so
rampant in the tribal belt of the state. The city-based Sickle Cell Society of
India (SCSI) is demanding a new law on ‘control and treatment’ of the disease
from the Maharashtra government. The society claims that even developed country
like USA, where Sickle Cell disease is not as rampant, has a National Sickle
Cell Control Act of 1972 and Sickle Treatment Act of 2003” (Shrivastav, 2012). I
see that it seems like they suffer a lot with diseases. Parents in India will
literally leave their children on the streets homeless because they do not want
to take care of a sick child. This is a sad situation for them to treat their child(ren) in that manner. Their culture is their culture. The great thing about their
area is that they have associations that will adopt the sick, homeless
children.
References
Berger, K. S.
(2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY:
Worth Publishers.
Genetics Home Reference (2014, January 27). What is
sickle cell disease? Retrieved January 30,
2014, from http://www.ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/sickle-cell-disease
Shrivastav, S. (2012, October 28). Sickle cell
society of India demands Sickle Cell control and treatment law. Retrieved January 30, 2014, from http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/keyword/sickle-cell-disease/featured/4
WebMD (2010, October 7). Sickle cell disease. Retrieved January 30, 2014, from http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/sickle-cell-disease-topic-overview
I'm sorry to read that your cousin from Sickle Cell Disease. You provided very detailed information concerning symptoms of Sickle Cell Disease. You had a very strong grandmother, I recently lost my grandmother (whom was 75) Christmas Eve due to a stroke and Kidney failure. No matter the condition it's very hard to lost someone so dear. I actually had no idea that Sickle Cell causes jaundice. Sickle cell disease was first found prevalent in African American populations in 1910 (Durham 1991). I visited kidshealth.org and it states, "People with sickle cell trait don't have sickle cell disease and usually don't exhibit signs of the disorder, but they can pass the gene for the disease to their children. Many people don't know they have sickle cell trait, but most babies in the United States are now tested as part of their newborn screening. When both parents have the sickle cell trait, there's a 25% chance that a child will have sickle cell disease. But when one parent is carrying the trait and the other actually has the disease, the odds increase to 50% that their child will inherit the disease.
ReplyDeletereference:
http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/heart/sickle_cell_anemia.html
http://soar.wichita.edu/bitstream/handle/10057/1884/LAJ_31_p6-13..pdf?sequence=1
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNakita,
ReplyDeleteAny chronic sickness or disease is definitely stressful for children. A child who has sickle cell will be in and out of the hospital frequently. It is hard to make friends when you are always sick. I remember when I was in school a little girl named Amber had sickle cell, she missed so much school one year she had to repeat the third grade. I can recall the teacher telling the class that Amber is very sick and she would not be returning to school for a long time; as a child you don’t understand what is happening to you, all you know is that you are sick all the time. I can imagine how awful she felt. A disease like sickle cell is devastating for the family members as well. I pray that someday there is a cure for sickle cell and the many other blood diseases that children are stricken with.
Nakita,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you decided to write about this topic. I have not known anyone that has had this disease and I think your post was very educational for me. I think this could be extremely stressful on a child and to the family. What a thing to overcome. I found this website to also be extremely helpful to me. I will be adding it to my list of resources for parents at my school. Thanks, http://kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/blood/sickle_cell_anemia.html
Nakita, this was a great post for you. I recently read a book about the starving children in India. It was horrific what those little ones have to go through. They never know where or when they might eat. They don't know where they might sleep. Some steal their food or eat out of garbage cans. They don't have clean water to drink or even to bathe. They sleep in garbage dumps. Some are kidnapped and sold; some are used as slaves to make the master more money. India is a depressing place and has little or no government support.
ReplyDelete