I am a Survivor

My name is Sandra and I'm 25 years old with Sickle Cell Anemia SS. From the age of 9 months old to 11 years old I was hospitalized countless times. I have been hospitalized on every holiday there is including my birthday. The month before my 12th birthday I had my gallstones and gall bladder removed, I have visited the hospital less frequently since then. When I turned 16 years old I started to have pain on a daily basis. Some days were a lot worse then others and required pain medicine, other days I was able to deal with the pain and continue on with my daily routine. Sickle Cell Anemia has limited my ability to do some things but it has also made me a very understanding person. I know what it is to feel pain so great that you wish you could just cut off or cut out wherever the pain is. I know what it is to but stuck multiple times because the hospital staff has a hard time finding your veins. I know what it is to be perfectly fine one minute and it extreme pain the next. To try to explain to others that it's NOT your fault that you have to leave an event early because the pain is so bad that you can hardly keep from crying. And most of the time people don't understand how that can be and feel as though you are faking or exaggerating. I want people to know that I understand because I've been there and I'm still there from time to time. My crisis have subsided a lot more since I've become an adult but the pain is still there but no matter what I still have to persevere and live my life. On January 1, 2006 the best thing that I could have ever imagined happened to me. I became a mother to my beautiful daughter. She is my WORLD and everything I do is for her. She makes me dream bigger and work harder because no matter what she needs to be taken care of. Sickle Cell or no Sickle Cell she depends on ME and I have to be there for it all. I WANT to be here for it all, the good and the bad, the happy and the sad. My delivery was not easy by any means. I had to have a c-section, my daughter was 5 weeks early, my incision was full of blood clots and had to be cleaned and packed everyday, I had to go back in the operating room to be stitched closed a week later, I developed an abscess and had to have a tube put in my stomach attached to a bag so it could drain, I had to get shots of pain medicine every 4-6 hours, was in the hospital for 3 weeks and lost 19 pounds in that time frame because of the stress of my daughter being in the NICU. Despite all that I went through I was in the NICU every 3 hrs to feed my daughter, most of the time I sat there in pain because my pain medicine had worn off but the next feeding time was coming up and I didn't want to miss it. Truth be told I would do it again in a heart beat because the end result is my wonderful and amazing soon to be 4 year old daughter. I said all of that to say that I have Sickle Cell Anemia, Sickle Cell Anemia doesn't have me. Now had I not endured this disease all my life I may not have been strong enough to deal with all that I do. This disease has been a blessing and a curse all at the same time. But it has made me who I am today, first and foremost I'm a mother and a single one at that. I am a business owner, I am in control of MY destiny, I am a life changer, I am strong and I AM a SURVIVOR!