(written June 4, 2005)

I already know what you're thinking when you read the title (Oh gosh vanessa's getting religious on me) but hear me out.

I know it's kinda bad to talk about another site on the site that you are on, but I had to share this. I was on Blackplanet.com and I ran across the member of the week whose name happened to be Sicklcell-kill. Now, at first glance, I was like "what in the world??" but I thought there is more to the name and felt that I needed to see the page so I clicked it.

I clicked the page and it brought me to a 17 year old girl from New York who was talking about her bouts with Sickle Cell Disease. She even dropped some knowledge on her page about the different forms of SCD and the symptoms, statistics and treatments available. She wrote a little poetry too and I was really taken by her page and felt the need to share my testimony with her. Well, my computer was acting up and kept deleting the messages I wrote to her. So then I decided to write it as a word document and send it as an email, but the email got sent back to me. So then, I just cut and pasted what I had on my computer in a note. It worked

This is what I wrote:

I don’t know if this message went through or not. I am on my sister’s computer and it’s going crazy. I just wanted to tell you that you have another sister in the struggle to inform people and the fight against sickle cell disease.



My name is Vanessa and I had sickle cell anemia. The reason I say HAD is because the Lord healed me almost six years ago.



I was diagnosed with SCA when I was four years old, and I didn’t have any pain that I can remember but I did have a stroke when I was five years old. I had been going to the hospital every three weeks for blood transfusions for sixteen years when I received a word that God wanted to heal me.



At first I was doubtful. I questioned why God wanted to heal ME when there were so many other diseases out there that were so much more extreme than mine (I had just had a friend die of leukemia on my 21st birthday and I had already seen so many of my friends die of other things) But then my sister told me something that many people say, but not too many people believe “God can do anything but fail.” She scolded me for questioning God and His motives for my life, and then she told me that God had chosen to heal me and because He did, He had a special plan for my life. I accepted the healing.





In June of 1999, I told my doctor that I would not be coming to the hospital anymore and I told her why I would not be coming. She called my family in for a meeting to discuss my health. Then she took me inside her office and showed me pictures of children who had sickle cell and what they looked like without treatment. She told me that that God not only wouldn’t heal me but that He COULDN’T heal me. She then asked me why God would heal me when there were so many other things He had to deal with (she basically told me that God didn’t have time for me) and then she said that she was the reason why I was alive for so long and without her treatment I would die (I rebuked her in the name of Jesus).



After that, I had to go through some spiritual warfare. (I had to go back to the hospital for pneumonia and my doctor gave me an “I told you so” kind of look) I actually didn’t know I had it and when I found out and went to the hospital for it, the doctors looked at my x rays and told me I should have been wheeled in on a stretcher. They were amazed that I just walked in. (God is good isn’t He?) Anyway, they did a CBC* on me and discovered that my hemoglobin** was 6.9. They wanted to give me a blood transfusion, but I told them to simply treat the pneumonia and God would handle the rest. I was blessed to have a Christian respiratory therapist. She prayed for me and with me every time she came to give me a breathing treatment. I stayed in the hospital for a month and a half. (That was the last time I was at the hospital for treatment)



The last time I was at the hospital, I was visiting a friend on the 8th floor because he was in a very bad car accident. It was very late, but I figured that since I was there, I would try to see if any of the nurses that helped me for all those years were still there. I went up to the 4th floor and some of them were there. When they saw me they greeted me with the same love they showed to me for so many years. It was like I had never left.



I’m sorry this message is so long, but when I saw your page as member of the week I had to go to it. The only people I have ever really known with SCA are the people from the hospital and the people from the SCDRF***. I have NEVER known anyone outside of there who spoke about having it. I read your page and I just wanted to tell you that even though it gets cloudy sometimes, keep believing, because God really does have a plan for you. I thought that I would have to go to the hospital for the rest of my life. I didn’t plan anything past college because I didn’t think that I would live past 20. I was very excited when I turned 20, it was better than turning 21 in my book. And then when I turned 21 I got scared, because I didn’t know anyone with SCA who was older than that. But I am 27 years old now ( I celebrated my 27th birthday on the 24th of May) and I haven’t been inside a hospital for treatment in six years.



I just wanted you to know that I understand your story, your history and the want for people to simply understand and not feel sorry for you. I know that God has a purpose, whatever it is, and He will bring it into fruition in your life. Take care and congratulations on being picked for member of the week.

I sent the note and she returned my note with a note of her own fifteen minutes after I sent mine. Now, you all who know me know that I can be long winded and that's exactly what I was with her, but she wrote back thanking me for sharing.

Ever since I went through that, I have been told that I have a powerful testimony. I don't share it all of the time because I don't think that regular people (meaning people other than the people that knew me when and my church family) will believe me. But sending her my very long message without knowing what she would think and then receiving her response made me feel good. I just wanted to share my joy.

I also want to invite anyone who reads this to share their testimony with me, no matter how big or small, I want to encourage you to share it with as many people as possible. You don't know whose life you might touch. I am living proof that GOD IS ALIVE and HE IS STILL IN THE HEALING BUSINESS. I also want to encourage whomever that no matter how big or small your problem, God can take it, bless you and make the blessing a reality.



* CBC - Complete Blood Count
A test physicians use to determine general health status and to screen for and monitor a variety of disorders, such as anemia
www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/cbc/test.html

** Hemoglobin- the protein molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body's tissues and returns carbon dioxide from the tissues to the lungs. The iron contained in hemoglobin is responsible for the red color of blood.
www.medicinenet.com/hemoglobin/article.htm

*** SCRF - Sickle Cell Research Foundation
www.scdfc.org

Also, for more information about Sickle-Cell Anemia, you may go to these websites for starters :) :

www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Sca/SCA_WhatIs.html

www.kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/genetic/sickle_cell_anemia.html

www.ornl.gov/hgmis/posters/chromosome/sca.shtml

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