Hi! My name is Ashley!
Introduction
In the now...
I am a junior attending Furtah Preparatory School, but I will be graduating a year early and call this my 'surprise senior year'. This is not my first time on GaVS as I have to do all of my classes using a computer. GaVS makes that really easy. AP Biology will help me to get ahead in college and make sure I have a strong foundation for any other sciences.
Science is my favorite subject because I have very serious medical issues that turned my life around by almost taking it. I'm extremely ambitious with many goals that I'm trying to reach. Having one job isn't the goal for me. The main foundation for my career would be my work as a clinical geneticist and orthopedic who specializes in connective tissue disorders. I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Hypermobility Type (EDS) which has a lot of secondary disorders attached to it, very few treatment options, and is both rare and under-diagnosed. EDS is a connective tissue disorder, hence my wanting for this to be my specialty. I want to do a lot of additional things in my career like launch a make-up line and publish cooking books.
June 6, 2014
This was right after my second shoulder surgery that I had to travel to Cincinnati Children's Hospital to have. There are quite literally no doctors for EDS in the southeast. I have two dislocating shoulders and both surgeries have failed to keep my shoulders in socket. My shoulders have improved, but lots of other joints still dislocate along with my shoulders.
November 12th, 2014
My health was in ruins very quickly after my second shoulder surgery. I was still in a public school at this time and was not getting proper accommodations despite having an IEP. The stress of not even being allowed to sit in the classroom with other kids because I was 'holding others back' by not physically being able to do anything except type really got to me. I had to get a custom $16,000 electric wheelchair.
May 21, 2015
I'm the one in all blue in this picture. It's a long story, but my health ultimately got a lot better. I switched schools, drastically changed my diet, and tried to do more physical activity. I couldn't do as much physical activity as I used to previous nine years that I played soccer, but I could do enough to get out of the wheelchair. Because of my journey and lack of professional help, I want be able to help others who are also going through what I had to go through.
In the future...
It took so much to get to where I am today. My family didn't have the money to keep driving up to Cincinnati for doctor's appointments that got me nothing but more puzzled looks from doctors, so I had to use what I already knew. I was (and still am) a straight A student, and the basics of biology and other sciences are what I used to help myself. My life is like a giant experiment. I think EDS was my biggest blessing in the sense that it's matured me a lot, given me a purpose, and motives me.