Our Story Pt. I
About a week after my first child was born my husband and I got some of the most devastating news ever. “Your son has Sickle Cell Disease SS”. In that moment I understood it was bad, reflecting on a project I had chosen to do in the 8th grade on Sickle Cell Disease. But I didn’t realize the magnitude in which this would shape and change not only my son’s life, but mine and my husband’s as well.
Right away the doctors wanted to start Tyson on medication every day twice a day and an additional vitamin to help with the reproduction of his red blood cells. And so we followed the doctors orders and quickly noticed that the medicine was causing him to poop constantly. I mean up to 8 times a day. When I expressed my concern all I got in return was ” Are you sure it’s not anything else? The medicine is known to help with bowel movements but nothing like that.” So me being the very attentive mother I am and knowing for a fact that it was without a doubt the medicine I started giving it to him only once a day. And sure enough he stopped pooping so much. I think this was the first time I realized that I would have to do things a little different than the doctors wanted me to in order to make sure my son wouldn’t have the typical Sickle Cell experience.
So right away I started doing research. I mean I read anything I could get my hands on about Sickle Cell Disease. And I’m not going to lie it was scary. From constant blood transfusions to early death. So immediately I started looking at cures. I knew from my project back in the day that there wasn’t one, but I was hoping that because so much time had passed that maybe they had found one. Unfortunately the only cure they had discovered was a bone marrow transplant. And in order to have a high risk of success it would need to be a sibling. Well that wasn’t happening anytime soon (so I thought) so I moved on to other options. The only thing that seemed promising was food choices and I had already decided to breastfeed my son.
So at our 3 month doctor visit (we go every 3 months to check his blood and run other tests) my husband asked about food and how it could play a part in helping Tyson’s experience with Sickle Cell Disease. And they told us “just eat a healthy balanced diet like anyone else.” Now I know what your thinking… Three month old babies can’t eat food! And you are right but we wanted to be prepared, extra prepared. So when it came time for him to eat, I decided to make his baby food at home. All organic!
At his 6 months check up Tyson knocked it out the park! His hemoglobin was still high (around 10.8) and he wasn’t having any complications. So again my husband asked about food and diet and how that could improve or positively affect Tyson’s experience with sickle cell disease. And again the doctors said “he just needs a healthy balanced diet like anyone else.” So I continued to make Tyson’s organic food and as he got older my husband and I decided to add or should I say not allow him to eat white sugar and or fried foods. And he continued to have a perfect bill of health.
Well at ten months almost eleven months Tyson got a sudden fever. And if you know anything about Sickle Cell Disease, that’s what you don’t want. And I couldn’t give him Tylenol and let him rest because it could be a sign of something really serious. If any child with sickle cell ever gets a fever of 101 or higher that is an automatic hospital visit. And I don’t mean a simple stick your tongue out and check your ears kind of visit. No it’s blood samples, IV’s, X-rays, catheters, test after test after test! And after being in the hospital for three days the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong. My mother said it was because he was teething but the doctors didn’t think so. They also couldn’t tell me what the heck it was and because he didn’t show any sign of being sick, I believe it was teething too.
Tyson continued to have a great bill of health. And in the midst of all this… I got pregnant!