As stated earlier, I continued to nurture the different talents I had and to put them into good use. I remember vividly writing my first book/short story, it made me feel very gifted OR was it when I drew a poster to inform teens at my church about an upcoming youth program. Sometimes I wished I had kept a copy, lol.

Anyhow, these talents apart from school kept me very pre-occupied. The only times I remembered I had the SS genotype was when I was ill which on most occasions was rather frequent. I think this basically stemmed from the fact that as a child you cannot grasp the importance of some certain things which is where parents/relations come into the picture.

The major solution to reduce the frequency of sickle cell crisis is constant drinking of water. Any growing sickler does not understand the gravity of these statement hence, the onus lies on you the parent/relation to ensure they do this. Apart from telling them to drink water, make them enjoy doing so (if possible always ensure there’s a bottle of water by their side wherever they are) and with time it will become part of who they are that even without asking them, they will be longing to drink water. This is because constant drinking of water lets the sickler stay hydrated.

Please let them avoid as much as possible sodas and extremely sugary foods. I did not understand this as a child because I remember vividly going to parties and gulping down bottles of sodas which contained lots of sugar. Immediately I got home, I would go into into a crisis. Reason being that sugar increases the viscosity of the red blood cells and triggers dehydration which is a major cause of sickle cell crisis.

So what then is the solution knowing that the warrior in question may feel left out if they are not allowed to take sodas like other children? Dilute or substitute it. Yes this is the best solution, take about half of drink and dilute the rest of it with water leaving it to contain less sugar OR substitute it with other healthier drinks like fresh juice or milk. Over time the little warrior will understand the reason behind your actions and even without your requesting would generally abstain from sugar.

The link below explains in detail the importance of drinking water and abstaining from sugary foods in Sickle Cell Disease.

https://www.froedtert.com/sickle-cell-disease/staying-healthy/water

Another way of reducing the frequency of crisis is to prevent the child from being exposed to extreme temperatures. Extreme cold can cause pneumonia, whilst extreme heat causes dehydration and both situations triggers a crisis. Neither situation is good for the child in question, only to ensure that they are kept as warm as possible in extreme cold situations / allowed to stay in properly aerated atmospheres in extremely hot situations.

Also proper education as they grow older is necessary. In my case, whenever I went for check ups at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, I would listen attentively while the nurses educated my folks on how to better manage my health, with time most of their statements stuck but as they say “ Children will always be children” so despite this education, I hard to learn the hard way.

Oh yes! I did learn the hard way when it came to drinking water and I also did learn the hard way about not exposing myself to extreme temperatures. Hence my reason for buttressing these points to you. Note that during my youth, for most of the time, there were no immediate pain relievers prescribed for SS crisis, it was mostly Panadol and this had very minimal effect in soothing pains. The only solution during my early childhood was to be rushed to the hospital for an injection or intravenous fluid. Hence, the reason for my saying I learnt the hard way. It was overtime that medical science advanced and they started prescribing pain relievers and for me it was not until my university days I started using them.
I remember vividly going as usual to the campus clinic and meeting a doctor that called me aside and told me that I cannot continue to always come to the hospital for an injection whenever I’m ill and he went on to prescribe a pain reliever for me, telling me that I should only come to the hospital if the pain persists despite the medicine.
Oh! I remember that day vividly and I kept on asking myself why it took so long for me to be informed that medical science had advanced in this area.

So please Caregivers of warriors, do learn from my situation and prevent your offspring /relatives from growing up the hard way. It’s such a toll on their health if they do.
I guess I’ll ending here today, would love to write some more but will do so at my next post.