Life
Sickle Cell Anemia
Sickle Cell Disease is a hereditary blood disorder that affects people in ways that can be felt and seen, such as causing pain and swelling. It also affects people in less obvious ways such as slowing physical development, damage to internal organs such as the liver, kidneys, and spleen. It causes stroke, eye sight problems, acute chest syndrome, and premature death among many more.
Sickle Cell Anemia is the severest form of Sickle Cell Disease and the type that mostly afflicts the black community. It is a a condition in which there aren’t enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen throughout your body.
Normally, the red blood cells are flexible and round, moving easily through the blood vessels. In sickle cell anemia, the red blood cells become rigid, sticky and are shaped like sickles or crescent moons. These irregularly shaped cells do get stuck in small blood vessels, thus resulting in slow or blocked blood and oxygen flowto parts of the body.
This results in a lot of pain.
