For anyone who has or is predisposed to sickle cell disease, this informative and compassionate guide provides all the facts patients, loved ones, and caregivers need to know in order to reduce symptoms, relieve pain, and help patients and their support circle better understand the cause and growth of the disease. Divided into different sections to address the changing complications posed by the disease at each stage of life, this book emphasizes the need for offering emotional and spiritual consolation to those who suffer from sickle cell disease or witness the suffering of a love one. Topics include the complex causes of sickle cell disease, the most current treatment options, facts on genetic counseling, pain assessment and management resources, and strategies to lower the likelihood of pain crises.
Allan Platt, Jr., P.A.-C., is on the faculty of the Physician Assistant Program at Emory University School of Medicine and was a Physician Assistant at the Georgia Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, Grady Health System, in Atlanta, Georgia, for over twenty years. He is the co-author of OVERCOMING PAIN (Hilton Publishing, 2005). Alan Sacerdote, M.D., is Chief of Adult Endocrinology at Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center and Clinical Professor of Medicine at SUNY Health Science Center in Brooklyn, New York.