She knew what it was to have pain she couldn’t put into words, but this was worse. As a child, Nana-Bilkisu Habib had felt it in her arms or legs or back, but this was everywhere, as if her whole body were shutting down. She couldn’t move. Her dad had to carry her into the car and lay her in the backseat. She spent the drive to the hospital reciting verses of the Quran, praying that she would make it through.
It had started last January, just shy of her 27th birthday, when she’d called to get a refill of a sickle cell drug called Oxbryta. There was some mix-up with her insurers; they wouldn’t pay for more pills, so she went without for a few days. One day Habib was going to the gym, feeling more lethargic than usual. The next she was in the ICU. She stayed for over a week, consciousness wavering.
Read the rest…
She knew what it was to have pain she couldn’t put into words, but this was worse. As a child, Nana-Bilkisu Habib had felt it in her arms or legs or back, but this was everywhere, as if her whole body were shutting down. She couldn’t move. Her dad had to carry her into the car and lay her in the backseat. She spent the drive to the hospital reciting verses of the Quran, praying that she would make it through.
It had started last January, just shy of her 27th birthday, when she’d called to get a refill of a sickle cell drug called Oxbryta. There was some mix-up with her insurers; they wouldn’t pay for more pills, so she went without for a few days. One day Habib was going to the gym, feeling more lethargic than usual. The next she was in the ICU. She stayed for over a week, consciousness wavering.
Read the rest…
