Today a person with sickle cell anemia came and talked to my class. Because sickle cell is a disease of the blood cells, it affects every part of the body that has blood flow, which means basically everywhere. A person with this disease is in pain almost all the time, and can go into "crises" of severe pain (8 to 10 on a ten-point scale) that necessitate hospitalization.
Even though the lady got out of the emergency room at 2am from one of her crises, and came to speak to us eight hours later at 10am, and was still in pain from the crisis, she was so very cheerful and humorous. She joked with us and we all laughed several times. In fact, judging by her contagious good spirits, no one would have guessed that she still hurt physically. (Many sickle cell patients have gotten so used to pain that they show no signs of it even if the pain is a 10 on the ten-point scale).
She told us that because sickle cell patients often seek large doses of pain medication out of necessity, they are wrongly derided as "drug-seekers" or "dopers" by their healthcare providers, sometimes even within earshot. "Don't do that," she said. "It hurts." That is more reason not to talk down to perceived drug-seekers--because they may actually be misunderstood people with sickle cell. (Even if the drug-seekers are real, I still don't want to disdain them, since I myself am a drug-seeker of sorts. My drug to escape from reality is the Internet).
"Between Virginia [her nurse's name] and the Lord, that is what has kept me going," the lady stated. I want to have some of her joy in the pain.
I love this story :)
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