In 1979, at the start of my first days of school in a new state, I had to get my shots updated. I was about 6-1/2 at the time, and was very excited about meeting new people. I don’t have much a memory of other children I hung around with other than my daycare mates. I was usually the only one and my daycare ‘mom’. At times there would be the occasional boy or girl that would be with me too. Getting back to my clinic visit in 1979 to update my shots. I remember one shot that was really nasty. What it was for, I have no idea, but afterward my shoulder swelled up very big and I had excruciating pain in the whole of my arm for about a week. This is my first ‘crisis’ I can remember. My mother took me to our family doctor and I was diagnosed with Sickle Cell Trait. Over the years, I would have ‘crisis’ after ‘crisis’. The ‘crisis’ in the beginning would be an arm, or a leg. Then as I got older, it would be an arm and a leg. ‘Crisis’ occurs when blood flow is reduced in the blood vessels due to the sickle-shaped blood cells; hence the name, Sickle Cell. These blood cells are extremely sticky and when they build up in a certain area of the blood vessels, usually in the joint areas, immense pain ensues. When I had turned 16, 1990, I could remember having a nasty bout of pneumonia. I over heard the doctors saying that they had done all they could for me and had to let the medicine have a chance to work. I was put on an ice mat to bring my 103-degree temperature down. It was some fungal type of pneumonia that the doctors could not identify. I had a blood transfusion. The first one ever I could remember as well. I had stopped having ‘crisis’ in 1987. That was also the same year I stopped getting hit severely by my mother. I didn’t really have any more health problems that I could attribute to this disease. I gave birth to a healthy baby boy, whom my mother took away from me after I moved to California to find out about my real father. My real father was dying from cancer. I didn’t find this out until he was dead. He lied to me and told me that he had beaten the cancer that was in his mouth. The chemo, and radiation therapy he underwent, took his teeth. He also lost half of his tongue. He drooled a lot, and also drank a lot. He still smoked cigarettes, the filter less kind. Years go by, and in 1998, I have a head cold while I am getting my hair processed for my first ponytail. I sneeze with my head down in the sink and my ears stop up. Normal right? Wrong because the hearing never came back to my left ear. I had completely lost the hearing in my left ear! 6 months after, I have a severe kidney infection that sends my body into shock and lose all sensation from the waist down! I can’t walk properly for a good 6 months. I slowly and painfully will myself to at least walk. I could get to no doctor, because the waiting list was so long and the admitting nurses were callous and didn’t seem too concerned in getting me help when I did go to the emergency room in Los Angeles, CA. I lose everything in the process. My job I had been doing very well at, my new apartment I just moved into 3 months before, and my car I had sacrificed to buy myself. I couldn’t move myself very quickly from evil situations, and it seemed evil was all around me. I introverted. I am still introverted. I have come out for a short time to write this up, because I though people should know. I went back to my mother’s in Mississippi, and finally got to see some doctors to tell me that yes I was deaf 100% in my left ear. The nerve had completely died and would not come back. There is no hearing aid I can wear to help me out. No doctor could tell me about the pain I still felt in my legs and the numbness and tingling in both legs. I leave my mother’s house and move out to Nevada in 2000. After the 9-11 attacks, I find life hard again. I become stressed out about money. I get hospitalized, and find out that this Sickle Cell Trait I though I had, was not a trait, but a variant of the disease. Well that certainly explained all the health problems I had constantly been having and my recent ongoing health problems. Living so high up, I get pleurisy instead of pneumonia. Last year in 2006, I had two migraines. Never had them before, and I assume they are a part of the disease. I am on no medications for this disease, as I am not sick enough. Just like I am not sick enough for SSI disability. I tried again with my mother after my last hospitalization, and ended up being thrown out. This time without anything, and my son completely poisoned against me, due to my mother’s abuse to both of us. I was back in Nevada within 10 months, with less of what I had taken with me. I was lucky to get my computer. I haven’t had much luck with work, and I think because of my personal problems, it has affected my work and ability to hold down a good job. I feel I am depressed and I feel hopeless. I cope with these feelings of hopelessness by focusing on my cats. I have two Horus, my king, and Lil’ Mamie, my queen. I have also been playing quite a few computer games and finding the need to upgrade my motherboard and video card. Also, the endless job searches, that don’t turn up anything that I am qualified for. I still don’t have a car, and I taxi myself around town when I need to get somewhere I can’t realistically walk to. I have a friend that I see about once a month to have some relaxation time with. Time to really take a time off from my problems. That’s nice, and that’s all I have to say about that.