Jessica Savelyev

I know I am a hard worker. I would rather pitch in and help my friends and family than ask for help. But it has finally gotten to that point in my life where I do need help from my friends and family… even friends of my friends and friends of my family.

The summer of 1996 was the year my younger brothers were born and my stepdad was in the hospital dealing with cancer. At the beginning of the year they thought I just had a slight cold, so I just went on with my life. I was biking to and from Chandler Sports Camp and then going away to overnight camp YMCA Camp Echo. At the end of the summer, I had dropped about 20 pounds. I was eating everything in sight and constantly going to the bathroom.

My parents were so concerned with the weight loss that they took me to have blood work done. Let me start with I HATE NEEDLES!! I always have. I hid in the bathroom. I do not know how they finally talked me into sitting still enough for the blood draw. When the test came back we found out I had type one diabetes and I had to be hospitalized.

Being a diabetic has never really stopped me from doing anything I have ever wanted to do. It might take me longer to do some things, but that is not a big deal.

Those of you who may suffer with diabetes know that eating may not satisfy the hunger urge. Over time I developed an eating disorder. I had great difficulty controlling my glucose levels, which resulted in complications. However, through the support and treatment of my amazing doctor, Dr. Gregory Clark, I was able to get control of my glucose and it is no longer an issue.

This most recent journey started one morning, out of the blue, when I woke up with Bells Palsy. The entire right side of my face stopped moving. It was crazy. I could feel everything, but nothing moved. I was in the emergency room twice in less than a week. The second time they discovered my kidneys were failing.

My amazing Nephrologist Dr. Nenoo Khosla had told me that at some point in my life I was going to need a transplant. But, the functioning of my kidneys was deteriorating much more quickly than we expected. Thankfully, Dr. Khosla advanced the time frame of receiving a kidney transplant. If it was just a kidney one of my family members would have donated to me, but because I need both a kidney and a pancreas I will receive both from someone who has donated their organs.

I was told it would take a year on the transplant list before my placement moved to the top and I have had to satisfy a number of health conditions. I have reached those goals and I will be placed on the active transplant list by the end of February or early March. So everything is about to get real.

We have been able to keep up with the medical bills for the most part, but they are going to get crazy expensive. Although we know we will have to carry a burden of the debt, we are so grateful for whatever you can donate to alleviate some of this burden. Life sometimes throws us for a loop, but I know with the support of our family and friends, we will get through this.

So, thank you for any contribution to help us out. It is deeply appreciated.