Hello everyone!! My name is Brooks. Today is my Birthday and I am one year old!!!! I was born March 20, 2018 at 8:36 p.m. and I weighed 8lbs. I now have 6 teeth. I’m not walking yet but I have a pretty impressive army crawl.  My favorites are my mommy of course (even though I absolutely refuse to say ma ma), my sister and my daddy. I don’t have any pets of my own, but I absolutely love dogs. My favorite snacks are ritz crackers, veggie straws and strawberries. According to my mommy and daddy, I am the sweetest little boy you’ll ever meet; however, I do have a slight temper. My parents also say I’m a pretty tough little guy. When I was about two weeks old, my parents received a pretty upsetting phone call from the doctor. Apparently, my blood work was a bit abnormal and they had to take me in for additional testing. Well it turns out…I have Sickle Cell Disease. For those of you who don’t know, Sickle cell anemia, or sickle cell disease (SCD), is a genetic disease of the red blood cells. Normally, red blood cells are round in shape, which gives them the flexibility to travel through even the smallest blood vessels. However, with this disease, my red blood cells can have an abnormal crescent shape. This will make them sticky and rigid and prone to getting trapped in small vessels, which can block blood from reaching different parts of my body. This can cause pain and organ damage. Sounds pretty rough right!? My mommy and daddy (and bunches of thanks to my wonderful grandparents) do a really good job on trying to keep me as healthy as possible because in their words, “it’s a pain in the hiney (they sometimes use another word)” when I have to go to the doctor even for just a basic cold. They have to do a lot of test to make sure it’s nothing more serious. Therefore, me and needles don’t get along very well, and I do a really great job of expressing that to the doctors and nurses. Initially, my family was pretty devastated when they found out I have Sickle Cell, but apparently their faith and trust in God has given them peace. I’ve had four ER visits and three hospital stays since I’ve been born because believe it or not,  if you have a fever and go to the hospital and say you have Sickle Cell disease everyone panics!!! It’s no fun at all spending the night at the hospital, but my mommy and daddy thinks the nurses and staff of the hematology/oncology unit at Children’s of Alabama are the best. I also met a very special nurse, her name is Sarah. It was something about nurse Sarah’s voice and presence that made me feel better. I gave her a pretty hard time in the beginning, but towards the end of my stay, we were BFFs! The only cure for  my disease right now is a bone marrow transplant. However, there are other treatment options/cures in the works as there has been a huge push in the medical industry to discover other treatment options.  

So with all that being said, this is the beginning of my blog titled How God Made Me: My Sickled Journey. I will periodically write about my journey, with mommy and daddy’s help of course. And please pray for me because as my mommy and daddy says, Prayer works!!

Thank you all for taking the time to read Brooks’ post. Please feel free to send us messages, comments, questions etc. Also, please share. We believe God has put us in this position to spread awareness regarding Sickle Cell. We know that some people will question God and even question how we can believe in God after receiving this diagnosis. Honestly, we’ve questioned him as well. Why God? Why our baby? And the answer was…Why not?  Why not help any other families that may be going through similar situations? Why not make people more aware of this disease? Maybe Brooks journey will bring people closer to God. Who knows?! But we do believe God chose us for a reason.