Our son (has type SS) was vaccinated –two doses of pfizer vaccine here in the USA.
No problem with first dose, but second dose proved different. He had pain and fevers and then was hospitalized for 11 days. He was doing OK on IV fluids for 3 1/2 days but then started having problems breathing. Acute Chest Syndrome set in severely. He was on an BiPAP mask in the ICU and received 3 units of blood followed by apheresis treatment involving 4 units more. There were at least 48 hours of very difficult breathing and then he started to ease out of it. He was very close to being intubated and placed on a respirator. BiPAP mask is difficult enough and thank God he wasn’t. We had thousands of friends praying for us. VERY scary.
This doesn’t mean you should avoid being vaccinated. However people with Sickle Cell need to watch out after receiving the vaccination for up to a week should things spiral out of control. Hopefully there will be guidelines developed. Perhaps a pre-vaccination blood transfusion would be a good idea, as it is with anything else that stress your body out. Example: international plane travel
The Acute Chest Syndrome developing so rapidly caught us off guard and we were very glad to have our son in the best place –the hospital.
Thanks for asking,
Ethan