About Jenny *sticky post*

Welcome to the Family Blog for Jenny.

Jenny is a 14 year-old girl who lives in Northern California.

Over the last year, she has gone from being a fully healthy 13 year-old to being nearly completely paralyzed. She retains movement only in her neck and mouth and faintly in her left hand.

This rapid decline in motor ability has understandably shocked and concerned us [her family]. We have responded by working with the best doctors in the field, fighting continuously to reach a diagnosis and find treatments.

Despite the best efforts of an extremely talented array of medical professionals, we have not been able to stop her decline. Doctors don't know for sure why Jenny got so sick but some think it may be connected to the Gardasil vaccinations she got (last one in March, 2007) and the weakening that seemed to start in spring and gradually built up. One sign was in April 2007 when everyone in her PE class laughed at her because she couldn't jump a hurdle they considered really puny. It is hard to say when the weakening started but by summer she had a terrible limp

One of the major things that would help her doctors figure out what to do is to find other people like Jenny (called "comparables")--people that share her medical condition and perhaps have had luck with certain treatments.

We are creating this blog to aid us in our search for comparables. If you think you may know a comparable, we urge you to check out the comparable traits in the sidebar and fill out our "Am I a Comparable?" form. [INSERT LINK]

Even if you do not know a comparable, feel free to leave a comment of support or link to any information you think might be helpful for us.

Thank you so much.