Hi! My name is Samantha, but my friends call me Sam. I am 11-years-old and I come from Springfield, Missouri. My parents raised me and my sister in this cute, little town where I've spent all my life so far. 

Me and my sister, Anna have a lot in common. I think that is why we get along so well.

We ride bikes together

We go to school together

And fly kites together!

Something that is different about Anna and I, is that I was born with something called Sickle Cell disease. Do you know what sickle cell is?

What's sickle cell, Sam?

Well to start off, Sickle Cell disease is a blood disorder where my blood cells are shaped like little crescent moons or what is called "sickle" cells. 

My blood cells

(sickle cell)

Normal blood cell

How did I get sickle cell you may ask? Well, I didn’t catch it from someone like you would a cold. It got passed down through my genes.

And not the "jeans" on our legs. The "genes" in our body!

You see, my mom and dad were both born with a sickle cell trait and when both a mother and father have that trait, there is a 1 in 4 chance that their child will have the disease when they are born. 

sickle cell trait

sickle cell trait

no trait

trait

trait

sickle cell disease

If both parents have the trait, you can either be born with normal genes, with a sickle cell trait, or with sickle cell disease. My sister for example, did not get the sickle cell trait, nor was she born with the disease.

So, how does this tiny, little change in my blood cells affect me and how I live?

Here, we can see that normal blood flow moves nice and easy without any problems. Kind of like how cars on the street drive down the road!

For starters, let’s look to see what normal blood flow looks like in our bodies.

But here, this is what happens when my sickle cells don’t move as freely.

The cells can get stuck and blocked up in my blood vessels, kind of like cars in a traffic jam. 

sickle cells

When this happens, it is hard to get enough oxygen to all of the right places in my body and it can feel very painful.

Because of the lack of oxygen, my hands and feet can swell up, I can get infections, my chest can feel tight, and some other not-so-fun things. 

Sometimes I have to take medicine and get shots from the doctor to help keep my body from hurting and feeling weak.

When I feel like my body is in a lot of pain at once, we call this a sickle cell crisis. A sickle cell crisis is when those cells get blocked up in my vessels and can cause me to feel pain in my muscles, bones, and other parts of my body.

Sometimes I have to go to back to the doctor to get treatment to help make the pain go away

Although it might sound like a lot for an 11-year-old girl like me to have to deal with, there are actually plenty of things that I can still do.