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Fertility

Since I signed the consents things have been moving very quickly. Labs drawn for pre-study evaluation. Over 20 tubes of blood collected. Thank God they decided to draw these labs before my transfusion on friday. The transplant nurse coordinator was there as well. She seems nice so far. After my transfusion I didn't hear from anyone at UAB. I was going on about my life per usual until I got to work yesterday and checked my voicemail. I was quite shocked to find a voicemail from UAB reproductive endocrinology clinic. It was a shock to my system and I wish I had chosen to check my voicemail AFTER work. The voicemail did not say anything extraordinary. They wanted me to call and set up an appointment for "fertility preservation". But it caught me off guard. Yes I knew that I would need to make this appointment eventually... Yes this was discussed previously but damn, did they have to move so fast. My fertility issues or lack there of is not something I am ready to discuss and...
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Consents Signed ✍🏽

Today made everything real. I signed the consent for the clinical trial.... I don’t really feel anything right now. But signing that paper made it REAL..  Honestly I want this to work so it’ll help us (sickle cell community) get closer to a universal cure.. I want this to work so they can take the results and collected data to help other sickle cell patients so they can have less suffering... Cheers to the beginning 🥂.. I’ll keep you posted 
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Curveball

My name is Jazz and I was born with Sickle Cell Anemia. Sickle cell is genetic blood disorder. Long story short, my red blood cells are jacked up! They are shaped like a sickle versus round like normal. They don't live as long as regular red blood cells and due to the shape they can cause painful epsisodes, "vaso-occlusive crisis". I was diagnosed shortly after birth so all I've ever know was life with sickle cell. For as long as I can remember I've had monthly appointments to see a hematologist. For equally as long my life and any plans have had to be scheduled to accomodate my monthly blood transfusions. Every 4 weeks. Every 4 weeks on the tuesday before transfusion I have had to remember to go get pre-transfusion labs drawn. I learned early what could trigger a pain crisis. I spent a large amount of time on preventive care more than anything else. Transfusion to prevent pain crisis. Extra layers in the winter time to prevent a crisis. Not spending a lot of ti...
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