During the seventh grade, I developed iron-deficiency anemia. I lost blood every day for three months due to my irregular period. With my condition, I experienced fatigue, weakness, and pain. I've never dealt with sickle cell anemia. Having iron-deficiency anemia, I can't even fathom what it's like to endure sickle cell anemia. My doctors had to put me on birth control. When I finished my birth control, my period ended. Then later in the eighth grade, the period came again. It lasted a month, but I ran out of birth control because my mother couldn't afford it. I never what anyone to suffer from a medical condition because they can't afford treatment.
From my understanding, sickle cell anemia is a disorder that causes red blood cells to shape into a sickle, causing them to die and leaving a shortage of blood. Symptoms can include infections, pain, and fatigue. Sickle cell is most common among people of African descent. I want to aid patients with sickle cell anemia by providing affordable treatment and raising awareness. Approximately 100,000 Americans suffer from sickle cell anemia. It affects 1 out of 365 Black or African American births, according to the Data & Statistics of Sickle Cell Disease.
To treat sickle cell anemia, we need to provide better devices and medicine to patients. We need to increase devices such as Patient-controlled analgesia, which allows patients to receive pain medication by pushing a button through an IV. When treating patients with sickle cell, hematologists should offer medications, such as narcotics, chemotherapy, vitamins, and blood transfusions. Morphine treats severe pain in sickle cell anemia. Hydroxyurea is a form of chemotherapy that treats pain and reduces the need for blood transfusions and hospitalizations. Vitamins like folate promote normal body function and treat anemia. Blood transfusions remove abnormal cells with the donor's blood to treat the disease.
September is sickle cell awareness month. By educating ourselves more on sickle cell, we can find solutions to aid those suffering from the disease. Some tips to help people avoid complications with sickle cell anemia are taking folic supplements daily and choosing a healthy diet. It helps to drink plenty of water and avoid extreme temperatures. Exercise regularly, but don't overdo it. Use nonprescription drugs with caution and try not to smoke. Right now, I'm a senior in high school. I have an internship in nursing assisting. When I go to hospitals for volunteer hours, I want to provide my patients with the highest quality care.
Being familiar with sickle cell allows me to understand what I should and shouldn't do with a patient who suffers from it. I hope we can unite each other to find a cure for this disease. My name is Jada Sinanan. I would be honored to work with patients with diseases and conditions. Being a doctor would provide me with the opportunity to change lives. I want to help people in hospitals by returning normality to them. To give them a chance to do what they love.
Thank you for this opportunity!
Healthcare does not look the same for every race, gender, or status quo. It is prominent in the world today, especially within women’s rights to their bodies, African American mothers losing their lives during childbirth, access to insulin, and healthcare, while being unobtainable for those without an abundance in income. These injustices in healthcare have put distrust within countless communities. As a young African American teenager, I am no stranger to the injustices within the healthcare system and those experiences are what shaped the importance of restructuring the outlook on the healthcare system. Each experience encouraged me to set a goal to become either the 34th African American female neurosurgeon or the first doctor in my family, specifically a pediatric surgeon. Moreover, giving others better care than I received, not discriminating based on their race, gender, or income, whilst restoring trust within those communities by developing interpersonal relationships, and exhausting every resource available to better promote their health and wellness is my plan of making an impact on the healthcare system.
Setting a goal to help those in need while either becoming the 34th African American female neurosurgeon or the first doctor in my family, may seem implausible for a teenager, being raised in a single-parent low-income family home of four. On the contrary, it is highly likely, and I indeed, tend to bring this into fruition with the goals I have set for myself, from reflecting on the experiences I received from theoretically trained medical professionals. From being on Medicaid receiving frowns when telling the receptionist or doctor my insurance, remarks such as “oh you on Medicaid”, to seeing my mom being belittled while trying to explain the symptoms of a sick child, to receiving the bare minimal help that is out there for patients with certain conditions. For example, I had been struggling with my weight, but for each visit sick or well discussed my weight issues. To some standards, I was “obese”, and all my symptoms were related to my weight. We tried various diets, and exercise until one day my mom heard a lady talking about a program for children who struggle with their weight called Healthy You. Curious about the program my mother mentioned it to the doctor, in a condescending tone they asked, “where did we hear about this program, and would you be interested in the program,” as if we did not want to receive help in being healthier or loved to hear the words you are obese. Why did the doctor fail to suggest this program to me, and why was everything about obesity and not ways to help someone with this condition? Healthy You did a complete makeup of labs discovering I inherited symptoms of diabetes. After constant feeling of doubt about the healthcare community here is where I decided I wanted to make an impact on the healthcare system.
As a future healthcare professional changing the distrust people of color, women, and low-income families receive and expectation for their treatment to an efficacious feeling during their visits can be the norm. Although we are equal, care for everyone requires differentiation based on their healthcare demands. Correspondingly, I will build interpersonal relationships with my patients, getting to know who they are, discovering what works and what does not, suggesting accessible programs, and educating them on various treatments available. Furthermore, sharing empathy builds stronger relationships that our communities need because it exemplifies your responsiveness, and esteem to their needs, which will consequently impact the deficiencies within the healthcare community concerning disparities within women, gender, race, and status.
