“I get sick maybe like 3 times per year, I’m in the hospital. I keep in contact with my teachers. My teachers know that I’m out sometimes. The last time I was really affected was my freshman year, about 3 years ago when I had gotten pneumonia and acute chest at the same time and I was out for about 2 weeks and that just messed up one of my classes ’cause I missed a paper.
In the event that I do get sick, I make sure that if I am in the hospital that they put the IV in my left arm so I can write with my right. I just keep open communication with all my teachers and maybe I would have to FaceTime into my class so I can just get the lesson while I am in the hospital.
[In regards to sickle cell,] Don’t let it stop who you are. You can still have hobbies, you can still have a regular life. Don’t be afraid to tell people about it. I just recently ended up, a few months ago, telling people for the first time. And by doing that I had given a presentation in my bio class about genetic diseases and so I ended up telling everybody that I do have it and that’s how I was able to give such a detailed presentation. It was really scary but you have to know that if people are your friends, they won’t stop being your friend.”
Janine, SCD Warrior, hemoglobin SS