Living with Sickle Cell Documentary
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My name is Jacqueline Holmes an I am 23 years old. My twin sister an I were born with with a blood disorder called Sickle cell anemia. We were born premature, so I was about one pound six ounces an she was one pound 13 ounces when we were born. Growing up as kids we didn't have a lot of complications with Sickle cell until she got sick one day and died after being misdiagnosed when we were 7 years old. As a young child I did not have that many issues, I never really had any pain crisis either. As I grew older is when things started to get a little more complicated. By the time I was a Sophomore in high school I had my first surgery surprisingly with so many more to come. When I was a junior in high school I had a stroke. I ended up having my first red blood cell exchange, an I spent about two weeks in ICU. After that I learned that in order to keep the risk of stroke down I would need to have regular red cell exchanges every month. This procedure was easy at first but then my veins started to collapse an I had to get a port. After my first port placement this were going fairly well. After my port placement I had to get my gallbladder removed, an a week after that surgery I had to have emergency appendix surgery. For about four years my port was working fine until I noticed that after my exchanges I wasn't feeling any better I was feeling worse. They found out it had stopped working an took it out an replaced it. Right after my second port was put in I could tell that something wasn't right it had bothered me from the start. It ended up getting infected an they took in out right before our family trip. Everything was going good until the day after we came home I was at a friends house an I passed out. She rushed me to Childrens Hospital only to find out I had a blood clot in my right atrium. I was admitted immediately they try to shrink the clot with medicine for about two weeks an it was not working. So we had a big meeting on what would be best for me to leave it in or take it out. They all choose taking it out would be smart. So open heart surgery it was. On August 26,2013 I had 7 hour open heart surgery. This was probably the scariest surgery out of all 9/10 that I've had. Things went fine an they were able to remove it. I ended up getting a hemorrhage the size of a baseball an growing on the top of my open heart surgery scar. That was my second open heart surgery this was in October of 2013. This is just only they few major things I have been through, but I thank God everyday that I'm still here.
My name is Jacqueline Holmes an I am 23 years old. My twin sister an I were born with with a blood disorder called Sickle cell anemia. We were born premature, so I was about one pound six ounces an she was one pound 13 ounces when we were born. Growing up as kids we didn't have a lot of complications with Sickle cell until she got sick one day and died after being misdiagnosed when we were 7 years old. As a young child I did not have that many issues, I never really had any pain crisis either. As I grew older is when things started to get a little more complicated. By the time I was a Sophomore in high school I had my first surgery surprisingly with so many more to come. When I was a junior in high school I had a stroke. I ended up having my first red blood cell exchange, an I spent about two weeks in ICU. After that I learned that in order to keep the risk of stroke down I would need to have regular red cell exchanges every month. This procedure was easy at first but then my veins started to collapse an I had to get a port. After my first port placement this were going fairly well. After my port placement I had to get my gallbladder removed, an a week after that surgery I had to have emergency appendix surgery. For about four years my port was working fine until I noticed that after my exchanges I wasn't feeling any better I was feeling worse. They found out it had stopped working an took it out an replaced it. Right after my second port was put in I could tell that something wasn't right it had bothered me from the start. It ended up getting infected an they took in out right before our family trip. Everything was going good until the day after we came home I was at a friends house an I passed out. She rushed me to Childrens Hospital only to find out I had a blood clot in my right atrium. I was admitted immediately they try to shrink the clot with medicine for about two weeks an it was not working. So we had a big meeting on what would be best for me to leave it in or take it out. They all choose taking it out would be smart. So open heart surgery it was. On August 26,2013 I had 7 hour open heart surgery. This was probably the scariest surgery out of all 9/10 that I've had. Things went fine an they were able to remove it. I ended up getting a hemorrhage the size of a baseball an growing on the top of my open heart surgery scar. That was my second open heart surgery this was in October of 2013. This is just only they few major things I have been through, but I thank God everyday that I'm still here.
Organizer
Jackie Holmes
Organizer
Vallejo, CA
