I am the Summit DD - Jessica

Jessica was a premature infant (preemie).  Born 4 months too soon and weighing 1 ½ lbs, she spent the first 1 ½ years in hospital. This put Jessica 4 years behind her peers and she didn’t start walking and talking until she was 4 years old.  Her muscles were too weak and she had a tube in her throat that helped her to breath.  She couldn't eat solid food for a long time and she had a feeding tube. She said "Cake was the first solid food I ate."  (The frosting of course was her favorite part!)  Once she came home, she had around-the-clock nursing care until she was 5 years old.  

She attended a special needs preschool until she was 6.  A nurse was available to give her care.  "Back then there was no inclusion," said Jessica.  Her mother fought to have Jessica included in regular classrooms after she started kindergarten at the age of 6 and for the rest of her school years.  Jessica said, "Even if it meant a one-on-one aid in elementary school, I was in the same room as everyone else and learning all the same things as well."

With her 4’ 8” frame, she is about the size of a fourth grader.  She still has a scar from her trachea.  She has had several surgeries, two of which removed scar tissue from blocking her airway.  The last surgery was in 2004.  Now Jessica takes medicine twice a day to help keep her airway clear of scar tissue.

Complications have affected Jessica her entire life as a result of being a preemie.  The noise from the machines that she was attached to  affected her hearing and she has mild hearing loss in one ear. The incubator startled her as a baby and now she jumps.

Other long term problems that Jessica experiences are hyperactive airway disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.  This means that she gets out of breath and has a hard time getting her breath back when she has been overexerting herself physically.  "My sense of smell has never developed – which can be an advantage since not every smell is pleasant."  The only 2 smells that she can smell is alcohol and peroxide. Jessica also has complications when she is in the cold more than 10 minutes.  Her skin turns blue (as a result of being a preemie) and she has asthma which prevents her from being in hot weather too long.

Jessica has faced challenges with her education.  She has a difficult time with her visual perception processing.  She has a hard time transferring information either from a chalkboard or a screen to paper, or from paper to a computer.  She has used note-takers – someone who has sat beside Jessica and takes down the notes from the board/screen throughout public school and in college or teachers provided notes.  In elementary school, she had a one-on-one aide. 
  

Jessica has been working since she was in high school where she was an Office Aide at Northfield Elementary school. At Tri-C, she held internships through the work study program as an office aide at the Job Center at Tri--C and Reading Assistant at Mercer Elementary School (which also was the elementary school that Jessica attended).  She is now employed at the Summit DD Board as Office Aide - her first full-time job with benefits!

Jessica attends Kent State and is working on her Bachelor's Degree in political Science which she hopes will make her a better advocate for all people with disabilities.  Jessica is the Summit DD!