Zetta Sylvia Baillou-Poitier - Facing Two Sickles: Families Dealing with Sickle-Cell Disease

Facing Two
Sickles

Families Dealing
with Sickle-Cell Disease

ZETTA SYLVIA BAILLOU-POITIER

FACING TWO SICKLES

FAMILIES DEALINGWITH SICKLE-CELL DISEASE

Copyright 2019 Zetta Sylvia Baillou-Poitier.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-7673-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-7674-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-7695-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019907703

iUniverse rev. date: 06/18/2019

CONTENTS

IN THE BIBLE, A SICKLE IS USED TO CUT EARS OF corn near the top of their straw. Such a sickle is usually made wholly of iron or steel and shaped much like the instrument used in western lands. The smaller-sized sickles are used for both pruning and reaping.

I imagine my childrens sickle-cell disease (SCD) doing something much like the sickle spoken of in the Biblethe sickled red blood cells first block small blood vessels and cut them down. And then they go through a pruning and reaping season with painful episodes while waiting to produce new or good red blood cells. How can we not refer to the Bible when the shape of the sickle used to cut the corn is the same as that of the blood cells afflicted with sickle-cell disease?

Joel 3:13 (KJV) says, Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. This blood disorder is similar to the sickle because it presses you down, makes you tired, and makes you want to give up on life. Thank God for the words I deposited in my childrens livesto always trust Him, on good days and on bad days.

FIRST, LET ME ACKNOWLEDGE THE HOLY SPIRIT, who has guided me from birth to this day. He has taught me to love God; my husband, Floyd; and my children despite the sickle challenge.

In addition, I acknowledge my parents, Horatio and Hazel Baillou, and Floyds parents, Harold and Muriel Poitier (both deceased), who gave me all their support, as parents, to face the unknown despite the fact that our dealing with two children with the same disease was a first for both families.

To my other family members, friends, associates, and church family who have supported me in any way throughout this journey, thank you.

Furthermore, my sincere thanks to paediatrician Paul Hunt and the staff at Sunrise Medical Centre and Miami Childrens Hospital (now known as Nicklaus Childrens Hospital) in South Florida for their love and support during our times in and out of the hospital.

To you, who I may have left out, thank you for taking the time to purchase this book or borrow it from a good friend to read.

May this book be an inspiration to you all.

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO AND HAS BEEN written in honour of my deceased daughter, Vashti Vernica Poitier (19902012), and my son, Vance Vasean Poitier.

In May 2010, my daughter, Vashti, aged twenty, said, Mom, why dont we write a book on children suffering from sickle-cell disease and let people know what we, as a family, have gone through and that we are still standing. Since May 2010, I have been preparing to make this book a reality, in honour of both my children. On 18 July 2016, I began to transfer information onto a flash drive in an attempt to create this amazing book.

I also wrote this book to help encourage any parent or guardian who may be the caretaker of a child with sickle-cell disease. I want you to know that you are not alone out there. I feel your pain. As a matter of fact, I have felt and still feel your pain, twice!

CHAPTER 1
The Beginning of Our Journey

WHEN I MET MY HUSBAND, FLOYD POITIER, FOR me, it was love at first sight. I had no idea that he had the sickle-cell trait. He had no idea that I also had the sickle-cell trait. And he managed to sweep me off my feet just one month later, in April 1988.

We dated for eight monthsyes, eight months. During that dating period, we knew that we were meant for each other. My mom and dad accepted him right away when they met him in May 1988. I think it was Mothers Day weekend that we travelled to Freeport, Grand Bahama, and he agreed to meet them. Meeting a girls parents is not easy, but he passed the test and got the thumbs up from the first meeting.

We were engaged that same year, on 10 December 1988, and married the following year on 2 December 1989 at the Zion Baptist Church in Freeport, Grand Bahama. During our engagement period, we learned our good habits and, of course, bad habits, along with getting to know each others family better. And after our wedding, we honeymooned for one week in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Oh, what an experience, with us never having spoken, learned, or known any Spanish, which is the main language there. We made it an awesome time, with great food and each others company.

In our culture, it was not mandatory that people check for hereditary disease in each others family before they got married. At the time, we had no idea what, if any, hereditary diseases existed within our families that may affect our children. Let me say this to people in love and considering marriage: it is a good idea to get a heredity test done before you say, I do, just so you know what to expect.

If you are not yet in love, the results may determine whether you want to continue with the relationship. However, if you are in love or already married and the test proves positive for a hereditary disease, especially if the disease has no cure, you will have hard decisions to make, but I will advise that you trust God. Trust God in all situations in your relationship, and remember Proverbs 3:5 (KJV): Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Believe me when I say, Trust God.

CHAPTER 2
The Decision to Start a Family

FLOYD AND I AGREED THAT WE BOTH WANTED children and we would start extending our family early on in our marriage. This way, we could share our youth with them while it was on our side. Therefore, on our wedding night, the procedure started, and I dare not say what we did, because my parents will read this book. If you have parents who are eighty years old, out of respect, you dare not say such words around them.

We were thrilled when I discovered in December 1989 that we were going to have our first child and started getting ready for our new family right away. For the first few months of my pregnancy, everything went as normal as any other pregnancy would.

At about six months, during a routine appointment, my doctor suggested that he test both Floyd and me to make sure we were not at risk of passing anything on to our child. As the doctor explained to us that the heredity test was a normal procedure, we thought, Well, OK, why not? Lets go ahead and d o it.