Sickle Cell Crisis: A Not-So Friendly Reminder

Hey everyone,

As usual, it’s been a minute since I updated on here. Part of it was life. But from May until now, it’s mostly because yours truly was MIA in the hospital.

So.

Not.

Fun.

Well I’m back, and shoutout to all those that emailed, tweeted and texted to find out where I was. Gotta love modern communication.

One thing I realized is that before I fell sick, I had significantly piled my plate full. When you are feeling ‘well’, sometimes you forget that you have a chronic medical condition. The Superwoman/Superman syndrome kicks in and you think that you can conquer the world. Before I fell sick, I was juggling a full time work schedule with a full time school schedule, in addition to all the responsibilities of wife, daughter, and stepmom. It’s one of those situations that something eventually had to give…and since I wasn’t listening to my body quietly telling me every night with pains to ‘take it easy‘….the quiet moan became a screaming roar that ended up leaving me laid up in the hospital for close to 2 weeks.

You would think that having dealt with sickle cell my whole life, I would know when it take it easy. But I was talking to another sickle cell warrior today and I realized something—we all tend to put life, work, families etc. ahead of our bodies and health. Sickle cell crisis is just a not-so friendly reminder that we have to take it easy. If you don’t take it easy…well as I learned, you are going to land in the hospital—BIG TIME.

So please my lovelies, remember to pace yourselves. And no matter what you are doing and must do this week and this month, take an hour a day at least for yourself. Because if you do end up in the hospital, all that work is just going to pile up for you anyway, and create more stress on your family and loved ones. It’s better to do your best to stay healthy.

The sickle cell precepts are not that difficult when you think about it. It’s something you should be doing anyway, everyday…regardless of whether or not you have sickle cell.

Eat right. Hydrate. Sleep 8 hours a night. Avoid stress. Get rid of toxic relationships in your life. Stay Warm. Be Balanced.

Be well.

SC Warrior

1 Comment

  1. Olajumoke on June 5, 2012 at 12:59 am

    Nice to have you back Tosin.

    Thanks for the advice. We all know these things but we just tend to choose WHEN to remember or not, according to it’s suitability/convenience at the point in time.



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