Hi, I'm Jessica, to my friends I'm known as Jessie, shorty or shortfry. I am the daughter of Colette Frysz and Robert Frysz, little sister of Angelina Richards, sister in law to Ryan Richards. I was born on February 23, 1988, seems like a very good start and ending to my story doesn't it? But, it has a dark secret and it is aHUS. In the year 1989 I was diagnosed with aHUS, at the age of 11 months to a year old, I was tiny, fragile and unable to comprehend what was happening to me. My mom had a tough decision to make, to have me suffer an extremely painful stroke from the very high blood pressures I was suffering, or take my kidneys out, as tough as it was, she decided to take my kidneys out; from then on, I remained on dialysis. Throughout the 22 years I have been on dialysis, I have gone through nephrectomies, biopsies of a newly transplanted kidney, parathyroidectomies, perma catheter placements, PD cath placements, which was performed once, I got peritonitis and it shut down my first PD cath, they tried again when I was 4. but it was unsuccessful. Then, graft placements, up to now, I have a graft in my right thigh, that is maintained with 3 month angio procedures. I am running out of options, but somehow I am still alive. My life hasn't been a piece of cake at all, but somehow I keep on fighting strong; I work at a dog daycare part time, have officially left my nursing home job, I drive a car, I successfully graduated from college with not just an Associate's degree, but a Bachelor's degree in veterinary technology and am now an NYS licensed veterinary technician in search of a job. . I hope to work with exotic animals, maybe even do some animal training/behavior. I am about 4'8 in height 85lbs, people ask me all the time if I'm truly 23 years old and I explain to them my issue, at times I don't like to, but if they are curious, hey why not right?
Even though I have had over 20-30 surgeries or so in my lifetime, I don't let it stop me, and I believe that with the help of my church, I have the spirit to go on. I am an altar server in my church, every sunday. With the help of the people that have been behind me every step of the way, I am here, I am fighting, I am strong. And, I hope to inspire most of the members on this website, that even though aHUS is a silent killer at times, we can prevent it, if we keep on teaching ourselves about the signs of this disease and what can be done to prevent it, and what can be done to treat it, if it gets worse. From my studies at school, I have learned that you need to open your horizons when you are looking for an answer on a specific issue.
I just hope that I am still alive when there is a cure for this disease, because I will be one of the ones to be supporting it.
I think that one of the reasons I am going to school for a medical field, is because I have been around the field since I could remember. I know it gets to be much when a patient needs to go on dialysis, it's tough, it truly is, especially for the patient.
We will keep on fighting this thing until a cure is in sight, I can't promise that, but I know it will happen.
