Activities: Do's and Don'ts

          Teens with sickle cell anemia can do the majority of what other teens can do. Since Brandon and I are so close in age, we always hang out together and do a lot of things together. The difference is that Brandon always has to be in good shape to stay as healthy as possible. He eats a balanced, healthy diet and takes medicine, including folic acid supplements as prescribed. Brandon always carries a water bottle with him to keep him from getting dehydrated. During the winter he stays home a lot because it’s not good for him to be in extreme cold, and during the summer on the very hot days its not safe for him to be outside either. Brandon plays a lot of soccer year-round to stay in shape. Sometimes when he exercises too much he gets a pain crises because he gets exhausted and overheated. Becoming very stressed can also cause the crises. In order to prevent Brandon from getting to stressed out he always has open note tests and doesn’t take finals at the end of the year to minimize his stress levels. Luckily, in my house we all have our own separate bedrooms, but my parents keep a baby monitor in Brandon’s room because having a sleep problem can also cause the crises. Brandon snores a lot in his sleep and sometimes just stops breathing for short periods of time.

           The next day instead of going to practice he stays home to rest and cool down and drinks lots of water; sometimes he has to go to the hospital to get checked out when the pain doesn’t go away. Brandon has a strict curfew because he needs to get a lot of rest. When we go to high school parties it is very important that he doesn’t drink, it is my job to make sure of it so we always stay together whenever we go to a party. Not only is alcohol really bad for him, so are drugs and smoking. Luckily Brandon hates the smell and thinks smoking and drugs are gross. He tries to stay away from the people who do smoke because they can cause very bad lung problems. During the summer we don’t go to the beach all that often because it’s not good to be under the water to much and he has to avoid places with low oxygen. Every year the whole family goes to the doctor and gets immunizations to avoid getting sick, it’s especially bad if Brandon gets sick and had a fever over 101° F. If he does, my parents take him straight to the hospital to have him checked by the doctor. Brandon always tries to have a positive look on life and not to let the disease upset him all that often.