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I Have Sickle Cell Anemia

I have had sickle cell anemia since I was a child. I grew up like most other kids. I would sometimes take the medication “hydroxyurea”. This medication helps me to cope with some of the pain that I experience. This pain happens when some of my red blood cells get stuck and have trouble traveling through my blood vessels. This happens because of my disease. Sickle cell anemia is an inherited disease. It affects some of your red blood cells by making them shaped abnormally. While normal red blood cells are round, Sickle cell anemia causes some of my red blood cells to be shaped like a sickle, or other deformed shapes. The doctors discovered that I had this disorder by performing “Hemoglobin electrophoresis”. This disease does not affect me mentally. The abnormally shaped blood cells contain “Hemoglobin S”. The red blood cells contain a lot of the oxygen that the body needs, and the abnormally shaped blood cells have more trouble carrying the oxygen. The only way to truly cure...

Posted by: Cinthia De Ruiz

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