Adding Hydroxyurea to Your Treatment Plan

Living with sickle cell disease (SCD) can be hard. Complications including pain, anemia, acute chest syndrome, and silent organ damage can occur anywhere in your body, at any time, and without warning. One of the most common complications is sudden and intense pain. Pain in SCD is usually caused by the sickle-shaped red blood cells blocking blood flow through the tiny blood vessels throughout your body. The abnormal shape is due to a different form of hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein) in sickled red blood cells. Usually, with normal hemoglobin, red blood cells are round, soft and flexible. Due to the presence of abnormal hemoglobin, red blood cells in SCD are stiff and shaped like a sickle (a farm tool) or a crescent moon. These red blood cells don’t flow easily through your body. They can get stuck in the blood vessels and block oxygen from getting to your tissues. That can cause pain, which is commonly felt in the back, chest, hands and feet.   Abstract source