There are a lot of times that people who do not have to deal with a life-long illness or rare disease do not understand why there is so much passion around the cause or supporting that illness or disease. I want to share one of my whys. This blog comes at a challenging time. I will share the background with you. On December 2nd, my family and I were gathered in Nashville to celebrate a family member who passed her exam to become a Registered Nurse on her very 1st try. I have a picture below that shows the 4th Generation of the family, along with my 2 Sickle Cell Warriors. We had an awesome time, an awesome celebration. Well, in less than a week, as pictured below, my daughter had to receive two units of blood because she was having a sickle cell pain attack. The pain attack was triggered because she had a double ear infection. A double ear infection can be a normal illness during the change of weather. What is normal to someone without sickle cell, such as an ear infection, is a risk for someone with sickle cell disease. There are things that people with regular blood cells take for granted. Although a person with normal blood cells will still have to work through the illness, a person with sickle cell disease will always have to wonder if this simple illness will trigger a sickle cell crisis or pain attack, which multiplies the illness. A simple cold, ear infection, or virus can turn into pneumonia or a crisis.
In less than a week, my sickle cell warrior had to deal with being hospitalized and receiving multiple units of blood because of the uncertainty and unpredictability of how her body responded to the ear infection. This uncertainty is also very frustrating for a sickle cell warrior and their network. There is no more helpless feeling than watching someone you love suffer, and you cannot do anything to ease the pain.
This helpless feeling is what originally motivated me to start training for the half marathon.
Once again, IT’S on!!! I am going after my goals with a raging inferno burning inside of me…. increasing donors, specifically diverse donors, increasing Sickle Cell Disease awareness, and 10,000 donors are the goals… One Dad Can!!!
