I know to some of you this may sound a bit odd but what I’ve come to understand about Sickle Cell Disease is that apart from doing everything right and ‘keeping to the books’ you also need to effectively understand your body and be able to retrace your steps when it gives you signs. I thus thought it wise, to note some of the drinks I avoid as an SS warrior which I believe may be of help to some of you warriors out there by narrating my experience and how the drinks impacted on my health.

In the first instance it was malt sodas. In my case, I had never overheard it in my teenage years that I should abstain from such drinks but my parents had. Owing to the fact that I had understood at an early age that sugar was not good for me, I rarely found myself in situations were I chose to take sodas but on this particular day for some reason, I craved a malt soda and requested for one. My mum being absent at the gathering was unable to stop me. The outcome was very severe as I had a very painful crises that followed. When I narrated to her that I had taken a malt soda at the gathering she immediately explained that doctors and nurses had specified during my childhood years that malt sodas should not be consumed by SS warriors because they break down our blood cells very rapidly.

To say that I understand completely the correlation between drinking malt sodas and having a crises would be far fetched. However, note that I intend to end this particular discussion when I’ve received detailed content from a more experienced physician or haematologist, as all my efforts to obtain online articles on this subject has not been fruitful.

The second drink that I abstain from are energy drinks. In this case, I had gone for a party and was offered an energy drink which I found to be rather refreshing, or so I thought. I kept asking myself as I drank it why I had taken so long to discover this energy drink that had been advertised so frequently. Anyhow I didn’t stop with only one can as I took an additional drink before going home. Before leaving, I checked the composition of the drink and to my dismay realized that it contained a large quantity of caffeine. It was too late to undo what I had done. On getting home, that night I had the most excruciating crises ever. It was horrible. My whole body raked with pain, I kept screaming because I couldn’t bear it. I ended up in the hospital but by then I had learnt the biggest lesson ever about taking energy drinks due to their high caffeine content.

Now the final item on my list is one you are already aware of and this particular one is alcohol. I believe you can guess what transpired in this case, but the event is quite different because in this case I came across a fizzy alcoholic drink I bought off the shelf. I call it my youthful exuberance that almost turned out to be an unbearable experience. My saving grace was the fact that I only took two sips of the drink not more than that. Immediately I noticed I was experiencing pain at my joints, I started to drink lots of water to flush my system and even went as far as taking a pain reliever.

I’ve come to understand that the reasons for my experience were as follows;
Alcohol dehydrates and causes a high concentration of water in your urine and intensifies thirst.
Caffeine at the same time is also Diuretic and causes you to pass out a high concentration of water in your urine which eventually leads to dehydration. Of course with these explanations, you can understand the importance of hydration which arises from the fact that drinking water reduces the chance of your red blood cells sickling and sticking together and promotes healthy flow of blood.