The story of Sareena
My name is Sareena. I was born on September 21, 1995. I was diagnosed with severe Factor VII Deficiency when I was two months old. I am now 29 years old.
My journey with Factor VII Deficiency began about two days after I was born when I started bleeding from my tongue. My parents were very concerned as this was something very unusual to occur. When my parents told my pediatrician about this, he said to just keep watching and didn’t seem too concerned. My parents brought me back to the hospital, and doctors ran various types of blood tests. On October 17, 1995, I was diagnosed with severe Factor VII Deficiency- a rare bleeding disorder which occurs in approximately 2 in a million people. In this disorder, people generally have issues with clotting.
A little over a month later, I was brought to the hospital again as I was vomiting, lethargic, and screaming in pain. I had a CT scan done and a blood clot was found in my fourth ventricle. It was discovered that I had hydrocephalus.
I also had seizures for about five years from around 2004-2009 due to all of the brain surgeries I had as a baby. I do not have much memory of these seizures, but my parents told me most of them used to occur late at night, and I usually would fall asleep after having them from exhaustion.
I have always tried to keep a positive outlook towards life despite any obstacles that may have come my way. I never like using my rare disease as an excuse, but rather I like seeing it as an opportunity to improve myself everyday, and to prove to myself that I can do anything I can set my mind to. I couldn’t have had a bigger support system than my family.
Many times when I am in pain or have any sort of obstacle, I think about the Quranic verse “Verily, with hardship comes ease.” This verse helped me so many times in my life as it always brings a calmness to my heart, and helped ensure that along with every hardship, there surely will be ease. I have a necklace with this verse written in Arabic.