Coping Strategies Archives - Page 18 of 18

Insomnia

For weeks now I’ve had a weird sleeping pattern. Generally I work late evenings from 3pm to midnight, and this is actually my dream schedule….don’t have to wake up early in the morning or fight traffic getting to work. I peak in the evenings, after 7pm or so is when I get a radical burst…

Exercising with Sickle Cell Anemia

My newest fetish is hitting the gym. I love going to the gym. My doc says it’s okay as long as I hydrate and don’t overdo anything. There is something about pushing my body to it’s limit that makes me feel absolutely invigorated. As the blood pumps through when I’m doing my cardio, I can…

Flying With Sickle Cell Revisited

Okay everyone, as you can see I’m back, alive and well. I survived both flights with only L3s on the first one (which I quickly handled with a double dose of Vicodin/Benadryl) and L2s on the return trip. I did remember to walk every hour up and down the aisle and drank water like it…

Flying with Sickle Cell

As you know one of the precursors of an exacerbation is flying at high altitudes. Although a pressurized cabin is highly recommended—even this manages to trigger a sickle cell crises. Usually I’ve been fine flying with only minor L2s if anything but usually I didn’t live in California and have to fly back east on…

Sex With Sickle Cell

I’m a very sexual person, so this has been one of the harder things to deal with about sickle cell. It sucks that when you are in the throes of a passionate encounter, you have a greater chance of getting and L2 or higher or even get thrown into a full blown out crises. Here’s…

Working Where I Was Sick

Yesterday I worked with a nursing agency. I got floated to the unit where I was sick in December! It was weirdly uncomfortable as you can imagine. The first nurse I ran into said, “Your face is so familiar,” and as soon as I said my name she exclaimed, “Yeah, you were a patient here…

Pain Scale

Living with sickle cell means living with chronic and acute pain. I have pain every single day of my life…sometimes it’s worse than others, and sometimes it’s just minor twinges that I can will away. I actually have a very high pain thresh-hold, I go for as long as possible without taking pain meds because…

Exercise & Diet

One of the perks I guess of having sickle cell is that it keeps me in my ideal weight zone. My BMI never goes above 20, mainly because when I do start gaining weight…one crises has the power of taking off 10 pounds in a week. Right now I’m a luscious 135…my ideal weight for…

I’m NOT a Drug Addict

Okay America, I know there is a plethora of drug addicts out there that come to the hospital seeking narcotics, but must you lump every young Black person into that category? I can’t remember how many times that I’ve been denied pain medication because the nurses & doctors felt I was ‘drug seeking’. If you…