LESSONS FROM MY SPINNING KEYS

One evening, I was spinning my keys around my finger. Then suddenly they slipped off, loosed from the key holder and falling off to different directions.

I noticed that a part also fell into a block hole which would be very difficult or impossible to assess.

At that moment I forgot about how many keys I had or what they were for, I looked at the keys remaining with me to check whether the key to my house was still there.

My focus was solely on the key to my house, because losing it would mean I'll have to break through the iron door that evening.

My heart was calm when I realized it was there. It was then I remembered I had other keys, then started to search for them.

I found them all; even the one that fell into the block hole was recovered.

After this encounter, I realized that at such moments of great loss, only the most important thing comes to mind.

The question is; what is most important to you?

Many who've had near death experiences say, at that time you forget about your money or houses. Your focus is on your soul.

Have you secured the most important aspect of your living?

That's very important. Your soul!

When death comes knocking, nothing else will matter, but whether you're prepared to meet your God or not.

Think about it and make immediate amends where necessary.

God bless you.

AN ENEMY OF TRUE LOVE– 3

Previously, we looked at the symptoms and prevention of the Sickle Cell Anaemia. I'm surely you learnt a lot.

Let's have the concluding part of this series as we consider treatment.

TREATMENT OF SICKLE CELL ANEMIA; 

The principle of management of sickle cell anemia patients include

1- Rehydration 

2- Blood transfusion 

3- Antibiotics (following blood investigation findings)

4- Analgesics

5- Bone marrow transplant 

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the best approach to the management and prevention of sickle cell anemia is via the primary prevention method. Definite cure for sickle cell anemia is bone marrow transplant–done very early in life.

Pain is a defining feature of Sickle cell disease. Patients experience unpredictable recurrent and persistent pain throughout life, resulting in frequent hospitalizations and lower life span.

Indeed, love is very beautiful when you find one; but don't let it blind you from the things that call for importance. If you're not a sickle cell patient, you probably will not understand what they go through in life and you really need to be grateful. If you have seen any of them in crisis, you would definitely agree that they go through hell. No amount of love is worth the pain of a sickle cell patient when he/she is in crisis. So, don't trade love with the health your unborn children. Please ensure you know the genotype status of your partner before saying "I do" or "I will marry you".

Thank you for reading through the three articles, I hope you see you some other time.

Bye for now👋

Miracle Oladoyin.

AN ENEMY OF TRUE LOVE— 2

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the second part of this series.

We've been looking at Genotype Incompatibility and it's consequences– an enemy of true love.

Today we'll be looking at the symptoms and prevention.

SYMPTOMS 

• Features of infections
• Vaso-oclusive crisis and/or acute chest syndrome characterized by pains in the bones, joint, chest.
• Enlargement of the spleen
• Leg ulcer
• Kidney disfunction
• stroke
• Heart dysfunction
• Stunted growth
• Slender extremities 
• Priapism
• Fatigue
• Diizziness
• Jaundice
• Shortness of breath
• Pale skin
• Hypoxemia or hypoxia

PREVENTION

Prevention follows primary, secondary, and tertiary modalities

Primary prevention means prevention done before the disease  which include; health education to the masses, teaching the young unmarried people things like genotyping in their premarital agenda, the economic and emotional implication of taking care of a sickle cell anemia patient.

Secondary prevention is early detection and prompt treatment of the disease, which can be achieved by encouraging hospital visits rather than self medication or checking the internet for your symptoms practiced by majority of individuals today.

Tertiary prevention is the rehabilitation of affected individuals and managing the various complications of sickle cell anemia.

In the next article on this series, we'll conclude with the treatment of Sickle Cell Anaemia.

Miracle Oladoyin

AN ENEMY OF TRUE LOVE— 1

GENOTYPE INCOMPATIBILITY AND IT CONSEQUENCES– AN ENEMY OF TRUE LOVE.

Love is a very beautiful thing, it involves lots of sacrifice, care and commitment. 

Imagine the feeling you get when you are in love with someone you feel is the right person? Everything seems perfect, the whole world is still for a while, everything seems so good about the both of you and then you are willing to take certain risks just because you feel you can't do without each other.

Love becomes blind, and we ignore things we are supposed to take note of because of how beautiful the love is. We forget the possible consequences of our actions.

Truth is, as beautiful as love is, there are certain things that must not be neglected. 

Take for instance the issue of genotype incompatibility; this should not be neglected for the sake of the possible future consequence. 

Genotype incompatibility between lovers could lead to giving birth to children with sickle cell disease.

Sickle cell disease is a group of disorder typically inherited from a person's parents. It is found mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and some parts of south east Asia. It is an haemoglobinopathy that is, a disease of haemoglobin component of red blood cells.

Haemoglobin is made up of haem and globin, globin is basically chains (alpha and beta) of amino acids sequence. The 6th position of the beta chain of the globin is where the defect lies; there is substitution of glutamate for valine which makes the red blood cells to sickle whenever they undergo oxidative stress (a decrease level of oxygen). There are homozygous and heterozygous sickle cell anemia.

When a patient is homozygous it means the patient is SS (sickle cell disease) while when a patient is heterozygous the patient is AS  and he is a carrier (inherited a copy of the sickle haemoglobin), when two carriers get married to each other there are high chances that some of their children will  inherit two (2) copies of the sickle haemoglobin; homozygous sickle cell anemia (SS).

Sickle cell patients are however normal human beings, they only manifest the symptoms of illness when they are in crises.

We'll take a look at the symptoms in the next article.

Miracle Oladoyin

PEACE OF MIND 2

 

"For how long will I continue like this?"

I asked myself this question each time I woke up from sleep.

Something very difficult to identify seemed to be missing.

I got up every morning, went to work, talked with a few friends and returned home.

Repeating the same routine could be tiring though, but there was nothing else I could do than to continue like that and hope to find an answer someday.

In my frustration, I decided to go to church after a long period of absence; I only wanted an answer, I had all the money I ever wanted but something very important was  missing; even with the money, I had no peace of mind. 

Well, the service was just for me.

For a very long time, in the atmosphere of worship and the Word, I was lost in thought,

"So there is someone who loved me this much and I had no idea" 

I felt sick in my stomach and my heart beat very fast, "someone loved me this much, even died for me and I had no idea?"

I must give Him a chance, He must be my Lord, my father and my everything. So after all I have done to hurt him he still loved so much. 

I made the best decision of my life when Jesus came in to my life. 

Oh how sweet it is to believe in Jesus.

I went home smiling all through because I had finally gotten an answer, I had found what was missing, I am very happy that I found my PEACE in Jesus.

#fiction

You don't need to procastinate submitting your will to Jesus. You cannot postpone your salvation.

Jesus is the only true source of  PEACE OF MIND.

THAT THEY MAY KNOW MY SERVICE

"Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries" (2Chronicles 12:8)

The people of Judah led by king Rehoboam had sinned against God and so Shishak king of Egypt came up against them.

In verse 5 of 2Chronicles 12, we see that Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah with the Word of God; they had forsaken God and so God left them in the hands of Shishak.

Judah led by king Rehoboam however humbled themselves before God and God granted them deliverance.

Our buttress point is verse 8, as we read in the opening text of this article. God left them to serve Shishak "that they might know" His service.

There are many times we go through hard situations and it seems God is not hearing our cries. If we are sensitive, we would discern that such times might just be "seasons of training".

Judah had to be trained in the SERVICE OF GOD and that could not be done by drinking, eating and dancing; they had to be drilled.

Without drilling, it was possible for them not to learn the difference between the service if God and that of kings in authority. They would remain childish in jumping in and out of iniquity. The learning process was necessary.

No gold comes out pure unless it passes through a furnace. Hebrews 12:7 says "if ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?"

Let us therefore be careful about which mountains we are casting into the sea, for some of them might be there for us to climb to the next vantage point of our lives.

If we continue to cast out every mountain before us, we would remain in the valley until we agree to submit and KNOW GOD'S SERVICE AND THE SERVICE OF THE KINGDOMS OF THE COUNTRIES.

Ikpa Onwuka.

HOPE- Regaining Spiritual Stamina

There is hope!

Don't stop believing, don't stop pressing on, for God's got you.