This Bucks County teen isn’t letting sickle cell stop her pageant dreams
Designer Replica Bags Aliyana is hoping to compete in the East Coast USA Pageant national finals in Fake Designer Bags July. Haneefah McCrary, Aliyana mother, Designer Replica Bags launched a crowdfunding page to raise money for Aliyana registration fees and gown. If they surpass their fund raising goal, Wholesale Replica Bags Haneefah said, their Bucks County family will donate the excess money to the Sickle Cell Foundation. Aliyana wholesale replica designer handbags was diagnosed with the disease shortly after birth. Designer Replica Bags
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Aliyana, who lives in Falls Township, often experiences headaches, labored breathing and pain crises a severe attack due to malformed cells blocking blood vessels. But faculty members at William Penn Middle School in Yardley, where Aliyana is finishing eighth grade, say that she optimistic, sweet, responsible and outgoing. Nancy Castner, her nurse at the school, describes her as someone who doesn let pain stop her from smiling.
replica handbags online TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer replica handbags online
cheap replica handbags Aliyana McCrary, 13, poses with her East Coast USA replica handbags china Pageant crown and Wholesale Replica Bags sash at William Penn Middle School in Yardley on May 1. cheap replica handbags
In April, she won Miss Spirit at the East Coast USA Pennsylvania competition, a regional pageant ahead of nationals.
Replica Designer Handbags was, like, amazing because it was my first time ever getting a title, said Aliyana, who also placed first runner up for beauty among the girls her age. was Designer Replica Bags like a very important moment for me. And then since I also got a title, I have to go to nationals or I have to forfeit the title, so that why we going. Per East Coast USA policies, regional title winners forfeit their crowns if they don compete at nationals, and Aliyana doesn want to lose that achievement. Replica Designer Handbags
TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer
Aliyana McCrary and certified school nurse Nancy Castner share a laugh. Castner describes her as someone who doesn let pain stop her from smiling.
Aliyana, by all accounts, is a trouper. Her gym teachers Denise Melnick and Brittany Bigos explained that Aliyana never uses her diagnosis as an excuse to skip class. Rather, she might give them a polite reminder about Handbags Replica her condition.
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Some sickle cell patients receive blood transfusions, Aliyana does not. She has twice yearly check ups with a hematologist to monitor the impact of the disease and replica handbags online takes penicillin daily, something many children with sickle cell take to prevent pneumococcal infection. She also takes folic acid, which helps with formation of Replica Bags new red blood high quality replica handbags cells.
Cold water is a trigger for her. Linda Resar, pediatric Fake Handbags hematologist and oncologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, explained that cold liquids, or even frigid weather, can Replica Designer Handbags cause blood vessels to narrow. The deformed cells, which Resar called would then move more slowly and become stuck. So, Aliyana avoids Fake Handbags swimming before pageants, cheap replica handbags even in the summer.
She most KnockOff Handbags commonly experiences pain in her legs. It may begin, for example, with a Replica Designer Handbags sharp pain in one of her knees. I will feel it going off and for a few minutes, she said. If it abates, she stays in class. If the pain persists with time, when I go to the nurse to get medication. Castner may give her ibuprofen and ensure that she rest, hydrate and use a heating pad. She has also felt pain in other parts of her body, but if a replica handbags china crisis affects a knee and intensifies, the hurt spread throughout the leg. At that point, https://www.whhandbags.com she replica handbags online begins to have trouble walking. it gets worse, that when they call my mom and I probably go home for stronger KnockOff Handbags medicine, which is Oxycontin, Aliyana said of the powerful opioid pain reliever.
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Designer Fake Bags Haneefah estimates that Aliyana has been hospitalized 15 times since she was born; the last admission was three years ago. In the current school year, Haneefah has had to pick her daughter up from school because of pain just twice. Haneefah credits Castner attentiveness and care. Designer Fake Bags
Fake Handbags Acknowledging when she needs to sit out has been a learning process for Aliyana. She said she resists sometimes because she wants be kind Designer Replica Bags of like other people. Hospital visits may be hard, she said, but ultimately, she accepts them. Fake Handbags
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Lessons in resilience
When she was first starting out in pageants, Aliyana would prepare with her grandmother, who gave her a new understanding of resilience.
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