My Sickle Cell Crisis May 2025
L&D Hospital Has A Helpful Haematology Ward
I recently had an extreme sickle cell crisis that led to a hospital admission. This started on the 9th of May, 2025. This crisis had been developing for about a week, as I’d been feeling harsh pains all through the week.
On the night of Thursday, 8th May, I had trouble sleeping. I experienced chest pain and a bad headache, along with hip and knee pain. When the pain is in my chest and head like that, it’s a sign that I’m experiencing a severe crisis, and it’s dangerous not to get help. Recently, someone I knew through a support group passed away after not getting adequate care during their sickle cell crisis. We need to get help as soon as the crisis appears to be life-threatening.
The morning of the 9th, I felt weak, and the pain had reached levels where it was hard to breathe. My mum visited that morning, and I made her aware of the crisis and that I’m thinking of going to the hospital. She knows how much I hate going to the hospital, so if I’m willingly choosing to go then it must be an extreme case. I didn’t want to take any chances.
My mum ended up taking me to the A&E (Accident & Emergency) hospital reception at around 1pm. Unlike my last crisis when I was severely mistreated in A&E, this time around, I had my care plan that was issued to me by my Doctor, Dr. Cheung. This care plan details how the A&E staff should proceed with my treatment, for example: staff is required to give analgesia to me within 30 minutes (10mg of morphine).
If anyone reading this is a sickle cell patient, I suggest you speak with your haematology doctor and get this care plan paperwork in place immediately, as it will provide A&E Nurses, who usually know nothing about sickle cell, a guideline to work from. If you are in the US, then A&E is the same as ER.
Thanks to this new care plan from my haematologist, the staff did not mess me around like last time. I had a slightly better experience in A&E this time around. Much of this was largely due to my mother being right by my side, so I owe her a big thanks. Despite this go-around being better in A&E, it still took around 12 hours for me to finally get a bed in the Luton & Dunstable Haematology ward, but waiting this long seems to be the standard wait time, regardless of your condition. I did have a temporary bed in A&E this time around, though, so I was thankfully lying down for a large portion of the wait. Unlike my 2023 crisis, where they had me sitting on a hard, uncomfortable seat for around 5 hours, with no updates.
I did keep getting pain relief top-ups in A&E when my pain got bad again. But as usual, A&E staff struggled to find my veins when it was time to get my cannula. They required the ultrasound machine to find a vein, but they still failed a few times before finally getting one in at the side of my left elbow.
Once I was on the haematology ward, I was well looked after. The nurses here are specifically trained to deal with sickle cell and other haematology conditions. They were much better at finding my veins when it was time to take my blood.
However, on the Sunday (2 days into my admission), I had another dreaded cannula mishap. I was forced to get out of bed on two occasions this day, which meant moving the cannula cables around. I think one of these times, the cannula needle shifted in my vein. Later that day, when a nurse came to put antibiotics through the cannula, she did it forcefully, pressing hard on the syringe, and I felt that terrifying, sharp pain in my veins as my entire arm inflated. After this, my arm was swollen for a couple of days. It was like I’d only worked out my left arm in the gym. I made them take the cannula out, and from that moment on, i only had oral medication. My pcp morphine pump was injected into my stomach, which meant I could still use the self-service pain relief system.
After being put on oral medications, I just needed to drink loads of water each day to replace the IV fluids and help reduce my inflammation. After a few days like this, I was ready to come home.
All in all, this crisis was handled by the hospital staff much better than my previous admissions. It has restored some of the faith and confidence in NHS that I lost many years ago due to being mistreated as a sickle cell patient. It’s clear that there is an effort to improve treatment for sickle cell patients, likely due to the rising numbers of SC patients.
If you know an NHS caregiver then share this short Sickle Cell Disorder E-Learning course that aims to improve the care that Sickle Cell patients receive.