HbSC is a haemoglobinopathy (a hereditary condition involving an abnormality in the structure of haemoglobin). The "S" represents haemoglobin S which is a sickle cell gene. The "C" represents haemoglobin C which is another haemoglobin disorder. Regular haemoglobin is represented by the letter "A". Many people have heard of sickle cell anaemia which is the term given to people who have HbSS, and know about trait/carriers who would be HbAS.
HbSC has some similarities and some differences and is part of the sickle cell family. Basically it means that my red blood cells are not doughnut shaped because of the problems with the haemoglobin structure and therefore it does not carry oxygen and carbon dioxide as well as healthy red blood cells. In addition, some of the cells are shaped like crescent moons and this can lead to them building up in blood vessels and getting trapped. This can cause pain (often referred to as sickle cell crisis), death to the tissue, lack of oxygen to tissue and many other problems.
But I am one of the lucky ones, I rarely have crisis episodes, I think I average about 3-a-year at present so I am not in hospital getting opioids and fluids to stop the pain regularly. On the flip-side though, I do have other complications such as retinopathy and avascular necrosis.
Find out more in my next post!
