10 General Symptoms of Sickle Cell Anemia

4. Pain

A child who has sickle cell anemia can experience two types of pain: acute and chronic. Acute pain starts suddenly and unexpectedly without warnings, while chronic pain starts gradually. Acute pain is usually felt in the legs and lower back and is due to obstruction of blood flow by sickle-shaped red blood cells. This is known as a vaso-occlusive crisis. If episodes of this crisis keep occurring over and over again, this leads to permanent damage to the body's organs. On the other hand, chronic pain is usually severe and prevent patients from having a healthy life.