As many of you know Jessica Fuller, a 29 year old wife to Mark Fuller and a full-time mommy to Gracie and Tucker was diagnosed with an Autonomic Dysfunction called Dysautonomia in October 2014. What exactly is this? Dysautonomia is a term used to describe a group of neurological disorders that result from dysfunction of the autonomic nervous systems (ANS). ANS controls involuntary functions of the body, heart rate, respiration and blood pressure.

Many days Jessie is not able to get out of the bed or stay at her home by herself with her blood pressure ranging from 50/30 on a bad day and 80/60 on a good day. After several ICU stays, Jessie had to have an emergency surgery to have a pace maker place in January 2015. Since then Jessie frequently visits the ICU and hospital for complications. She takes blood pressure medicine 4-5 times a day to attempt to elevate her blood pressure to where she can function.

April 2015 she had a port placed for her to begin to receive an outpatient infusion therapy to try and raise her blood pressure because her daily medications were not cutting it anymore. Currently she goes every 3 days for infusions and then goes back to the hospital the following day after each infusion for fluids and medications for the side effects of the infusions causing extreme nausea, vomiting, dehydration and headaches. The disease has affected her heart, respiratory system and blood pressure.

Jessie has been under the care of two cardiologist and a primary care physician who have tried to treat her from the beginning but have always recommended her go and see someone who specializes in this disease. This is where the Vanderbilt Clinic comes into play.

Vanderbilt is the Cardiology and Autonomic Dysfunction center in the United States and it is extremely hard to get an appointment with them. However, after they received Jessie’s packet of information back in April, they accepted her as a patient and she has been on the waiting list for an appointment since then.

She has received confirmation of an appointment opening on November 17th, 2015. Although this is great news, it does not come without conflict. The Fuller’s have ran into several roadblocks with their insurance company. They found out they have to have a total of $4,000 to proceed with the appointment. After all of the medical expenses they have endured from previous hospital stays, surgeries, infusions etc., there is no way they can come up with this amount of money in such a short notice.

After making this first payment, the Vanderbilt Clinic will proceed with her test and treatment plan on November 17th – 18th, they will set her up on a payment plan for the remaining balance.

As family members of Jessie we would love to try and help raise the money for her! Any help, support or donations would be greatly appreciated!

Love,
Kayla Walker and Tina Fuller