This year started off with a blessing as I birthed my precious third baby. Two months later I find myself hospitalized for sickle cell crisis not once but twice.

I never deemed myself a sickle cell warrior as I grew up watching my other sisters deal with this disease a lot worse than I ever had, in pain with hospital after hospital stays. They were and are my warriors! My crisis were far in between and never required more than a day or few hours in the ER, as I was able to manage my pain from home.

March comes around and I end up in the ER, which turned into a 5 day hospital stay because I couldn’t manage the crisis. The shocker was, 4 weeks later I have another crisis which required 8 days of hospitalization. How do I go from barely being hospitalized to 2 crisis back to back? At this point, it’s taking an emotional toll because I miss my children especially my newborn (it was best for him not to visit while I was hospitalized).

This second time was the worst case I ever encountered. It started off with shortness of breath then pain down both of my legs. Turns out not only was I going through a crisis but I also was diagnosed with Acute Chest Syndrome (ACS), a severe lung-related complication. As if it couldn’t get worse, my hemoglobin upon admittance dropped from a 10 to 5 within 24 hours. Which in turned required me to get a blood transfusion.

I say all this because I would be a fool not to testify where God has pulled me from. I know I’m here today because Jesus knew it wasn’t my time. Possibly an attack to keep me from pressing with my goals or a test to be a testimony to even one person. Either way, I have a new outlook on life, the small moments matter and I’m and thankful for the ability to breathe and see another day.