Coping Strategies Archives - Page 16 of 18

Changing the Image

Okay sickle cell warriors, it’s time for some frank talk. I’m sick and tired of hearing how lazy people with sickle cell are. I’m sure that the majority of us aren’t…but for some reason, the public has the notion that we are just milking ‘the system’ for our pain, are too lazy to get a…

SickleSpace

Oh my goodness, i just was sent a link to the most interactive sickle cell forum on the web! It was started by an obviously tech savvy and funny fam. You can upload blogs, pix, links, videos and just pretty much everything else like you could on Myspace/Facebook and other social networking sites—but it’s all…

Sickle Cell Diet

A couple of people have written asking me about the proper sickle cell diet. The best collection of sickle cell diet principles, menus and recipes that I’ve come across is in: Back to Our Roots Food For the Gods, “Cooking for the control of sickle cell anemia and disease prevention” by Chef Dawud R. Ujamaa…

Excite Me…

I’m writing this from work, and in approximately 5 hours, my vacation starts! It’s only 10 days long and so far the only thing I have penciled in is skydiving. Yep, you read right—SKYDIVING! You’re probably wondering why a sickle cell warrior as myself would want to skydive??? As my friend Rhea would say, “Why…

No Pain

Check this out—this is my first week ever since I hit puberty that I haven’t had to take any narcotics. That’s intense! I haven’t had any L3’s at all and barely any L2’s. In fact, the only thing I’ve taken this whole week since Monday last was 600mg of Motrin a few times. Now I…

Re: Sickle Cell Drug Addicts

My, my, my that was a hot topic. I didn’t even know that many people read the blog. I would like to thank Anon RN and Anon Parent for stepping up to the plate and bringing this up. Personally I hate it when people assume that just because we are on narcs we must be…

Pregnancy & Contraceptives with Sickle Cell

Besides abstinence, what are the best contraceptive choices for a sickle cell warrior? For men of course that would be the condom, but for the ladies, with all the choices out there it gets a bit more complicated. You don’t want to try anything that is too heavily based on hormones, because they have a…

Swimming with Sickle Cell

I got a question from a reader in Egypt that loves to swim but has a painful episode after each swimming session. For sickle cell warriors, my advice is not to swim in cold water. The main thing about swimming is that it drops your core body temperature, increasing the work load of your circulatory…

Dealing With Sickle Cell When You Don’t Have Insurance

Okay, so we all know what a load of crap the medical system in the USA is. It’s even way more difficult to deal with it when you have a chronic illness like sickle cell. This is because you have to always make sure that you have insurance, because if you fall into a period…

Connecting With Someone With Sickle Cell

I just got off the phone with Milan, a reader from the blog who is the absolutely most fabulous chick I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with sickle cell. She’s like a young version of me, all spunk, feisty, full of determination, attitude, sass and heart. She’s actually what I wish I was when I…