Pictures are worth a thousand words. This is an illustration between normal Red Blood Cells in a healthy person and a person with Sickle Cell Disease.This is why those who have this genetic disorder (including me) are in so much pain. The abnormal Sickle shaped RBC's block blood flow and the surrounding tissues don't get the oxygen needed to carry out there functions. In the mean time normal RBC's can't get through to deliver what oxygen they do have, so everything is like a rush hour traffic jam plus the lack of oxygen to the place in the body where the traffic jam occurs. Bunching of the sickled RBC'S and normal RBC's can happen anywhere in the body but for me the upper and lower extremities (arms and mostly legs) are my pain areas. Now I'm not going to go in to full blown details about Sickle Cell Disease because there are other websites that tell you all about it. These two websites go into more detail and are going to provide this support group with most of our resources.
Sickle Cell Disease Association of America
University of Illinois at Chicago Sickle Cell Center