Shorter Family

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She deals with aches and pains. She’s sick constantly, and then she’s still a child, so it’s still trying to get her to put her coat on….it’s a rollercoaster for Libby. She’s already had her splenectomy. I don’t know. It’s tough. It’s hard.

The headaches are coming back. Her fingers are swollen, and usually when she’s sick, she gets little aches and pains, but her fingers swelling. She’s getting blood transfusions, so I’m wondering what is the problem. And they said we just have to up the dose. And I ask, ‘When do we know it’s not going to work?’ ‘How much stuff do I have to go through?’ ‘How much medicine is she supposed to take?’ ‘How much codeine is she supposed to be on?’ ‘For how long?’ It’s getting frustrating.

– Danielle, daughter has SCD

I didn’t know [I had the trait] until I had my first pregnancy with my first son. So when he had sickle cell trait I said, ‘Okay, my genes are good.’ When the second one came with sickle cell trait, I said, ‘My genes are really strong. Look at Mommy go.’ We didn’t know Daddy had sickle cell trait until seven days after Olivia was born, and our pediatrician called and she said, ‘I’ve got some news,’ and that’s when we found out. This was in 2010.

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