For a week or two I have been thinking about making my journal public. What influenced me most was the blog Sickle Cell - Natural Healings, which is where I learned about Liquid Chlorophyll and Serrapeptase. That blog is a mother's experience raising a young son (about 4 or 5) who has Sickle Cell. I commented on her blog and she took the time to reply to me and explain what she has been using for her son. (Her regimen included Beet Juice, so I added beets to my diet, though juicing will release more nutrients if you can do that.) I appreciated the fact that she had taken the time to help me out. A few weeks before, a Facebook friend had posted an article about how bone grafts of people with half matches were being done to cure Sickle Cell, and it worked in about 50% of the cases. I commented on his post with a link to the blog I posted above, and other links to the websites I had discovered over the summer that led me on my journey to health. He eventually put me in touch with someone who also has SC so that I could tell her what I've done.
This summer was incredibly difficult for me, and I seriously contemplated suicide because my relationship with pain was incredibly unbalanced. Pain with SC is not always normal or manageable by even the heaviest painkillers, as described in the first paragraphs of the article here. My greatest motivations to finding alternatives to my former lifestyle (which included drinking plenty of water, very little juice, and making sure I ate my veggies) was my upcoming 8 month stay away from home. I really wanted to be healthy and well, and lead a normal lifestyle. I was also incredibly tired of the pain. Anyone who suffers from chronic pain can tell you how exhausting it is to deal with, and I felt I was missing out on so much that I could be doing, if only I were well, if only my body to cooperate.
My research led me to a wealth of websites that I have listed in previous posts, which talked about Thiocyanate, among other things, and so I made a decision to change my diet from the moment that I knew what foods could help me. Making the decision to change was easy. What wasn't easy was sticking to my diet. My parents didn't understand why I wasn't eating their food all the time, and I didn't want to explain to people who didn't understand my disease (My father had it pretty bad when he was younger, but no longer has crises, to my knowledge. At one point my parents blamed one of my crises on the fact that I didn't go to church.). I was also getting tired of my diet, of eating the same foods, and so, I stopped. The changes didn't occur right away, but I had two more very bad crises (which again made me suicidal) in October and November. After the last one, I once more made the decision to change, and I have stuck with it. I want to live and I want to be as healthy as possible.
I have a dream of helping other people who have this disease. I want to share my experiences, what has worked for me and what hasn't. I want to help other people live better lives. Right now, I am tired, because I've been feeling so good that I've kind of forgotten that I need to rest as well. My disease hasn't been cured, but it sure does feel like it at times. I feel amazing when I don't have to think about it all the time, when it's not the ruling factor in my life. I won't let this thing rule me, and I don't want it to rule anyone else either. If my blog, my experiences, this information, can help at least one person, I'll be happy. If I can personally help anyone by commenting or emailing or just being there to lend an ear, I would be happy to do so.
A lot of people don't know about my experiences because in general I have a cheery outlook and love to cheer others up. But of my own pain, both physical and emotional, I have not much spoken. Now, I've decided that I've been quiet long enough. In the past, I used to be ashamed of my disease, I used to blame myself. I felt as though I were somehow at fault for all of my experiences. I know that now to be a lie, and I don't want anyone else to blame themselves either. No one controls their genetics. No one controls what life hands them. But what we can do is decide what we'll do with what we're given. This is what I've decided to do, and I hope I can help and inspire other people.
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