Join : Fight For Jontanna

<[email redacted]>Greetings to all , My name is Jontanna Greene and I am a twenty-three year old college student. I've been fighting a constant battle with a disease called auto immune hepatitis since the age of seventeen. It is a life threatening, chronic liver disease. As a senior cheerleader at South Gwinnett High School located in Snellville, Ga, I never could have imagined anything like this happening to me. With the school year settling in, I was cheering for both football and competition, when my mother suddenly noticed a swift change in my behavior. I had always been really active in my community, involved in clubs, extracurricular activities, and helping others, to the point where when she witnessed a change, she then became worried. I would come home from a long day, extremely fatigued and sluggish, and I even had a slight discoloration in my eyes. I got injured during competition season and from there I had a follow up appointment with my physician where my mom requested for a blood draw to see why my eyes were suddenly so yellow and I wanted to sleep so much. The next day we received a call from my physician informing us that my liver enzymes were elevated and referred me to a gastroenterologist (GI specialist) at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. From that point forward, my entire life was changed. From there I was placed on a strict medication regimen where I had to take fourteen pills daily. If I could explain in words my exact feelings while going through this, I would. Going into my senior year of high school, I knew I wanted to attend Valdosta State University. After my diagnosis, with my condition being life threatening, my doctors recommended I choose a school closer to home to stay close to my loved ones. As a teenager, I didn't feel as though that was the route I should take. In almost everyone's life, the moment we looked most forward to was receiving a diploma and going off to the college of your choice. So, I maintained the rest of that school year and began my freshmen year of college in Valdosta, GA. Living in a dormitory, being exposed to a plethora of different people and germs, I immediately fell ill and had to return home on a medical withdrawal. Being in and out of the hospital, not being able to continue my education to become an educator, and somewhat putting my life on hold has been one of my biggest struggles to this day. Growing and becoming more mature, as the years have gone by I have become more understanding of my situation and I have accepted it. Being a religious person, I was taught to never question God, but it took a while for me to get over the, "why me?" phase. I now say, "why NOT me, for I realize that God has placed this upon my life as my testimony and another endeavor to inspire others. I'm very comfortable with sharing my story, and I'm always open about it because I know that this is all part of God's divine plan and He's pulled me through so much. That lets me know, I have nothing to be ashamed of and to embrace every obstacle, setback, or disappointment. Recently, my doctors informed me that they feel it is time to consider a transplant. There's no cure for my disease, yet long term monitoring of medication helps to give my organ some function and a transplant helps you live longer. As you could imagine, the cost for something as major as an organ transplant is extremely expensive, so I'm being proactive in this situation and following the teams orders by trying to raise money for expenses, medication, medical bills, visits, admissions, etc.. Any and every donation, act of kindness, and prayer will not go unnoticed and is GREATLY appreciated!

Thank You!