Phoenix: Live Love Laugh

Living with Sickle Cell Disease has shown me how remarkable the human body is—and how faith, persistence, and the right questions uncovered years of hidden damage. Here’s my AVN timeline and what I’ve learned about pain, patience, and healing.

Introduction: The Body Is a Fascinating Map

• Opening thoughts: your amazement at how the body adapts, endures, and even shifts pain
• The spiritual insight: how God’s design and timing often show up even in your diagnosis journey

Part 1: The Start of the Pain – 2016–2017

• Undescribable back and shoulder pain
• Months of unanswered questions
• Multiple hospital visits, X-rays, MRIs
• The offhand AVN comment from the knee specialist
• Turning to your Sickle Cell Facebook group for real answers
• Realizing how common AVN is among warriors—and how under-discussed it is

Part 2: A Hematologist’s Response That Changed Everything

• The moment your hematologist says, “It was eventually going to happen”
• Your reaction: why didn’t anyone warn me?
• The yearlong wait and struggle with losing the use of your right hand
• Finally: shoulder surgery, Nov 2017

Part 3: When It Moves—2018

• Moving to Texas and facing new pain
• Early hip pain dismissed as “mild arthritis”
• Proactive request for imaging to avoid déjà vu
• Discovering AVN again—now in your left shoulder and hip

Part 4: Present Day – Recovery and What Comes Next

• Current recovery status: one month post left shoulder replacement
• No narcotics = sharper focus = hip pain emerging
• Doctors require 5–6 months between surgeries
• Your prayers: protection from crisis while healing
• Gratefulness: 5+ years without a crisis
• Enduring 3+ years of constant pain—still praying to hold out until December for hip surgery

Final Reflection: Strength, Faith, and the God Who Built This Body

• What this journey taught you about the power of the body
• What it showed you about your own mental strength
• How faith carried you through silent battles
• How others can be more proactive about symptoms + self-advocacy
• Encouragement to readers: you may be hurting, but your body is still working for you