Jessica's Story

Hello everyone! I come to you as humbly as I know how asking for donations for a very courageous young lady. My little sister, Jessica Parks. She has been given a journey to travel that I know I would not be able to navigate but she has handled it with such strength and dignity. Over the past 3 years she has faced many health issues that would've weakened most but she still stands to tell her story. She bends but doesn't break.

In February of 2011, at age 23 she was diagnosed with Systemic lupus erythematosus. Although, the diagnosis was devastating she took the news in stride and was determined not to let her diagnosis dictate her life. As a family we know the power of prayer and so we prayed. In the first year, she had only experienced a few lupus "flare ups" but nothing too significant. That all changed a year later, March of 2012. Jessica started to experience excruciating pain in her right leg. She was rushed to the ER where she was diagnosed with thrombosis (blood clots) in her popliteal artery. Having clots in your artery were typically uncommon but that is what Jessica was facing. She had her first of many surgeries. The doctors were unable to determine what caused the problem to actually fix it. There was nothing more that could be done at that time. Jessica was only 24 so she still had a full life to live and she was not going to allow her diagnosis to slow her down. She moved back to Phoenix, AZ as she had planned prior to her diagnosis; once there she continued her follow up care.

Jessica's story becomes a little tougher after she moved to Arizona. Her new primary care physician prescribed Jessica an antibiotic that conflicted with her lupus & it caused her to have multiple painful lupus flare ups. It took weeks to determine that what was supposed to be helping her was making her situation unbearable. She was in the hospital for almost a week but recovered to be released.

 By November 2012, the pain in her right leg returned and after several ultrasounds her doctors ruled out the possibility of another blood clot in her artery. This was a small victory and mystery wrapped into one. We were thankful that she didn't have another clot but we had no explanation as to what was causing her pain. For months the pain in her right leg persisted. Jessica ultimately had visited her doctors and the emergency room over 20 times with pain in her legs and burning in her toes. Finally after countless visits she was referred to a vascular clinic who diagnosed her in February 2013 with what is called a venous insufficiency. Jessica was advised that she had an insufficiency in BOTH legs, which was shocking because she only had problems in her right one. They advised her that she would need to have a series of minimally invasive procedures done to correct the problem. They recommended that her "secondary" veins in her legs be stripped so blood would only flow through her main veins which would eliminate the pain.

The battle to figure out what was wrong was over and now she had to fight with her insurance company to get the procedures approved. The diagnosis that Jessica was given was not typical of a young 25 year old woman.  By April 2013 she was finally approved and had her first procedure done. The final procedure was not completed until September 2013. During these months Jessica was living and working as normal. In October 2013, weeks after the last procedure, she started experiencing the same pain in her right leg. After a visit to the doctor she was informed that she had another clot in her popliteal artery. This new clot led us to believe that she was misdiagnosed earlier that year and the vein stripping procedures she had done were unnecessary. Jessica developed two clots in her leg that month, which threatened to have her leg amputated. For the most part Jessica was facing these battles alone. As our immediate family lives in Nebraska, and I reside in Texas. As her older sister it is my obligation to be by her side so I took the first of many trips to Arizona while she was hospitalized. She had the surgery to remove the clots & after a week in the hospital she was finally released.  In November her vascular surgeon changed her diagnosis to The Popliteal Entrapment syndrome. Essentially, her muscle was pushing up against her artery causing the blood to clot. Back to surgery she goes in November to remove another clot she developed, then another major surgery to fix the entrapment problem.

While in the hospital after having numerous surgeries and being unable to work, Jessica was fired from her job while lying in her hospital bed. The company she worked for could no longer hold her position. Imagine the devastation of multiple surgeries and now the concern of not having a job to pay for her day to day living. To make matters worse, Jessica had been covered and insured under our mother's medical insurance but in October 2013 she turned 26 years old so she was no longer eligible for our mother's coverage. She Jessica had to have medical coverage, she attempted to maintain her very expensive Cobra insurance. However, Jessica could not focus on all of those issues because her priority had to be her recovery from her multiple surgeries. From October 2013- January 2014 she had a total of 4 blood clots in the same artery/leg, 4 procedures to remove the clots, and 2 major surgeries to "fix" her issues. This took a toll on the artery itself and her toes due to lack of circulation.

Bringing us to her current situation. With all of the clots and the lack of circulation to her toes it left her with Necrosis (black tips) of her first 2 toes on her right foot. The tips were completely dead and the doctors told her about amputation. After years of diagnosis, treatments, and being strong Jessica finally broke down. Everything had come to a head for her and she sunk deep into depression. The thought of getting her toes amputated at 26 was just too much for her to bare. Jessica has to rely on faith at this time. We have to be reminded of the positive things in life. Just a few months ago she was facing losing part of her leg and now her toes were in jeopardy. Jessica and I prayed together countless times. We reminded ourselves, that she has to be able to get through this because God brought her to it, and he was not going to leave her now.

For weeks she followed up with a podiatrist to see if they would be able to salvage her toes. Unfortunately, after going to the emergency room once again because of the pain in her toes the doctor advised her that a partial amputation of her first 2 toes was necessary to save the rest of her toes. Underneath the blackened tips her bone was infected so she could either have the partial amputation or the infection could spread past her toes. She had the amputation on March 25, 2014. I flew out to Arizona again to be with her for the surgery. The amputation was successful; they fortunately only had to remove the tips and not the entire toe. However, her blood flow was thought to be insufficient so she had another procedure done to determine if a stent had to be placed in her artery. Thankfully, there was no blockage so a stent wasn't needed. A small victory, and the doctors are hopeful that she will have a successful recovery. As, I type this Jessica is still in the hospital 3 weeks later and last night was placed in ICU for excessive bleeding from the incision of her last procedure.

My purpose in divulging all of Jessica's history is in hopes that she can receive some monetary help. As you can imagine she has countless medical bills that have accumulated throughout this ordeal. In addition, she will need Physical Therapy and continued care once released from the hospital. She has not worked in over 6 months because she has been hospitalized so frequently. I help where I can but I cannot carry it all. My hopes are to relocate her to Texas so she doesn't have to endure this on her own as she has. I would love for her to just be able to focus on her recovery and not have to worry about day to day living expenses, medical bills, copays etc. She has been through a lot and stress wouldn't benefit her in anyway. We ask humbly that you find it in your heart to give a little and it will mean a lot to a her.   Please keep her uplifted in prayer because the battle isn't over. God Bless.