Growing up, I moved a lot due to my father's job. I often missed annual appointments, I  even had braces for five years because she was so busy moving & settling down. My dad thought it would be a great idea to name me Jaymee. The name was fine, but my mom insisted that it was “elegant”. I mean how elegant could a 16 year old girl’s name from California. 

As a child, she shared everything with her old sister, Chloe. Everything from toys to drinks. But now, she was off to college and I had the house to myself without her. But, she was back in town while on Spring Break.

One day, I was having a fun day at the park with my friends: James, Tara, Hannah, Kyle, and my boyfriend Ryan. All of sudden, I start throwing up. I hadn’t throwing up in almost four years. This came to a shock to everyone. I felt like I was going to pass out. I also got very light headed.

Ryan pulled the car around front and I got in. He told my friends to meet us at the hospital. Ryan also called my mom and she called my dad & sister to meet us there too.

Once we go to the hospital, we sat in the waiting room for what felt like forever, waiting on a open room, it was spring break what else could you expect? Finally one room opened up, just as we walked in a hear my frantic mother yelling “Jaymee?!?... poor Jaymee! My sweetie!” I was still throwing up, but I remember that face to palm moment, just to show how embarrassed I was.

A nurse welcomed me into the room and told Ryan and my friends that they had to stay in the waiting room, but my mom and dad could stay.

The doctors came in and asked me my symptoms and if I had any throughout the previous week, Coming to think about it, I was so stiff, I thought it was just from working out too hard. Then, he doctors ran coutless test which took countless hours. They took fecal samples, throat swabs, and blood. They were so concerned because I didn’t have all my proper shots as a baby. Which made my parents feel so bad.

Eventually, they got the test results: Poliomyelitis virus in my system or Polio. All I knew about Polio is that a president had it and he walked funny. Me coming to that realization made me scared and made me start crying. The doctor tried easing my pain by telling me some statistics.

Only about 2% of polio carriers have severe muscle pain and less than 1% results in paralysis.

“Doctor, what is Polio?

Doctor Jera says: " Poliomyelitis or Polio is a microorganism than is super super small.” Since Polio is a virus, it can’t grow or reproduce without the host YOU!”

How do we make her better?

“Let’s first start with what happens in your body. It all starts with the immune system. Your first layer of your skin is the first line in the immune system. However, the problem started there. You drank or ate after someone who had the infection. Which completely avoided the skin. You could have gotten it from not washing your hands after the bathroom, while having fecal matter on your hands of someone infected." Says the doctor.

She goes on saying: "Anyways, the next thing are the white blood cells. First white blood cells are the macrophages. They are the types that release cytokines in order to signal and recruit other cells in that area with the pathogen. Pathogen is just a fancy name for disease causer."