– A Sickle Cell patient tells her riveting storyBy Sharmain GraingerMedical professionals have over the years warned that life for patients diagnosed with full blown Sickle Cell disease is not only likely to be shortened, but it is highly unlikely that they could lead normal lives.Sickle cell disease, which is also known as sickle cell anaemia or “SS” disease, is said to be an autosomal recessive genetic blood disorder with over-dominance, characterised by red blood cells that assume an abnormal, rigid, sickle shape.? This often results in a child, both of whose parents have the sickle cell trait, becoming diagnosed with full blown sickle cell, a disease more prevalent in Africans.Once sickling of one’s blood cells occurs, there is always a possibility that immense medical complications will result, which is driven by a mutation in the haemoglobin gene.Having been diagnosed at the age of nine with full-blown sickle cell, there was not much hope for a normal life for Desiree Fredericks.? As the eldest of seven children she grew up with her parents and siblings at Anna Catherina before they moved to Stewartville, West Coast Demerara.As fate would have it, she was the only one among her siblings with the ailment. She remembers how growing up with the disease was a major challenge as joint pains and other devastating complications would overwhelm her frail body.“I would feel pain naturally hitting me to the bone… so severe sometimes that I couldn’t even walk,” she recalled during a recent interview.So distressing was her infliction that she was forced to not attend school on many occasions and would have to be rushed to hospital for emergency treatment constantly. She was required to take a plethora of medication and oftentimes it was those that would help to ease the pain she was subjected to as a result of her condition. She remembers praying to be cured of the condition.And by early adulthood, Desiree was convinced that the worst had passed. The pains that she had grown accustomed to over the years had subsided. Instead of being rushed to the hospital on a regular basis, her admissions were reduced to a mere three times per year on average. Life was actually becoming a bit more manageable, so much so that she was even contemplating marriage.Desiree had grown up in a Christian home and was hoping to find a Christian husband – and so she was sure that Marlon Fredericks was the right one from the get-go. But to her amazement, many of the individuals who were aware of her medical condition were more than eager to warn her intended husband that she may not be the right choice for a wife.“People used to tell him it wouldn’t be a wise decision to marry me, because people with sickle cell would normally lose their babies,” she recounted.Desiree Fredericks and her ‘miracle baby’.But their efforts were no match for destiny as by the age of 27, she and her sweetheart had tied the knot. Soon after marriage she was pregnant with her first child and it was as if she had plunged back into a forgettable phase of her life when she was subjected to unbearable sickle cell crises.She recalled that throughout her entire pregnancy she was rushed to the hospital every week.“First it was the Best (West Demerara Regional) Hospital, and when the doctors there would see me coming they used to know exactly what to give me. It was just stomach pain and more pain, but then they eventually couldn’t handle me,2014 Olympic Team USA #44 Brooks Orpik White Stitched NHL Jersey, so they decided to transfer me to the Georgetown Public Hospital.”So severe were her crises that both nurses and doctors at the city hospital were forced to vocally register their concern about a full-blown sickle cell patient attempting to carry through with a pregnancy.“They were constantly telling me ‘you are full-blown sickle cell patient,Cheap Nike Air Max Shoes, you know you are not supposed to make children’.”According to Desiree,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, medical officials did not fail to remind her repeatedly that not only could her child get the disease, but there was a possibility that she could lose her life in the process.“There were just a whole lot of negatives I was getting. One doctor even said that he wouldn’t allow me to go through with the pregnancy because I had become severely ill.”She recalled how her condition required that she be given medication constantly to ease her pain and she disclosed how prayers were what kept her going. She remembers “blacking out” as a result of her pains, sometimes,Wholesale Jerseys, and reviving to the sound of her husband praying over her.“He, like me, is a true believer in prayers and he would always tell me everything wo