Sickle Cell Kidd

Jiagnosed at three days old with sickle cell disease Reshaud had some challenges he would face in life. With limited resources available his family is able to provide him with the medical care he needs to live a life as normal as possible. He has pain crisis that causes him sharp pain in various places and come on all of a sudden. The medical care helps pay for his medicine and that he needs to prevent any further serious conditions, helps him with the pain and treats infections. Academicallly he was affected due to negligence and minimizing his condition at school. He was bullied and singled out by his peers and some teachers even. It made him develop a complex and withdraw at times he gave up and did not participate in many activities due to shame and feelings inadequate. He felt ashame and lashed out in different ways which did not help him but as a child feeling cornered thats all he thought he could do at the time.

Academically he fell behind due to being out sick, hospital stays, many doctor appointments and lack of communication between the faculty at his school which resulted in him being held back twice. Being a parent of a child with a disability I did all I thought I could do and gave the office, nurse, and teacher the school information related to his condition which was not followed and resulted in him not being able to be accomodated for his illness and feeling like it was his fault he fell behind. Being a parent of a child with a serious illness made it hard to keep a good job but somehow I managed to although I deal with many issues FMLA (family medical leave act) secures my position yet I do not get paid. I found that many people at my sons school, my job, friends, and family were not aware of the seriousness of this disease and how it affects not only my son but my entire household. Eventually we decided it was best to take him out of public school and he opted to get his GED. During this process we went through several things and decided this was best for him.

On July 17, 2013 at 18 years old, Reshaud had a stroke which paused everything in our lives. Finding a way through this difficult time I wrote a book and sketched illustrations to not only release some pressure but to educate and relate. I also began to film this entire process to keep from breaking down I redirected my emotions to my talent. We want to produce a documentary about our journey as a family and his individual journey so as a family we decided to do our part and bring awareness advocate for him and those like him..like us.

As a family we decided to move closer to his doctors and rehab and packed up all of our belongings in our big house and move to a small apartment. Within 24 hours of us doing this the storage facility had a fire and we lost all of our furniture and 40% of our belongings. We were all devastated and he took it really hard. Every four weeks he has to have a transfusion in order to prevent another stroke and he has to rehab to return to get back his full ability. All of this has caused us so much emotional and financial strain and we hope to get past this without any other major mishaps.

When you wear this t-shirt or hoodie you will be supporting sickle cell awareness and assist Reshaud and his family with the goals he needs to be a productive young man as well as support his goal of helping others understand what sickle cell is and help educate while we search for a cure. Throughout the difficult times we have had we stuck together even when we didn't see eye to eye. We still keep our focus on getting him better while we advocate for sickle cell and we are determined to bring awareness, educate, and help other families cope until we have a cure.