testimony – At 51, Michel suffers from sickle cell anemia, an invisible and painful genetic disease
“Physically, it’s not obvious that I’m sick. I don’t have a leg or an arm missing.” However, Michel Alsemene suffers from an invisible illness. Like his parents, he is a carrier of sickle cell disease. This genetic disease which affects red blood cells is common in France, although little known to the general public. In fact, between 20,000 and 32,000 people suffer from this pathology, which affects one in 1,300 newborns in our country.
His pathology manifests itself in violent crises where he has the impression that his bones are “crushed” and “broken”. Some sickle cell patients compare the intensity of pain from an attack to a pregnant woman’s childbirth. Morphine is often one of the only remedies if the attack is too violent.
These can be triggered by a stressful situation, a drop in temperature, or even by altitude. Michel found himself in intensive care on several occasions. “There is constantly this fear of death looming, this sword of Damocles,” he explains. The life expectancy of a sickle cell patient is more than 40 years.
One blood transfusion per month
He had to adapt his daily life to the illness. When he goes on vacation, he “always checks that there is a hospital nearby” because he has to get a transfusion once he(…) Read more on 20minutes
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