The Beginning
Hi there. My name is Ashley Zupkofska and I’m 22 years old. In so many ways I feel like everyone else. I love to try new things, travel, meet new people and explore all that God has blessed us with.
While I like all these things, my life is far from normal — this is my story…
My sophomore year of high school I was struck with many major health issues.
That year, my body unexpectedly collapsed from the inside out. I had trouble concentrating, couldn’t breathe, and dealt with severe fatigue — walking from class to class was a struggle that soon became impossible. My mom had to put a bed downstairs and soon I was in a wheelchair just so I could make it to the bathroom. After the symptoms became so severe the only option was to seek medical advice.
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In December of 2011 I stopped attending regular school and by March of the next year I weighed merely 90 pounds, which in my 5-foot-8 frame made me look ghostly.
We went to the doctors and they found a few different diseases right away, including Hashimoto's, Scoliosis, and Raynauds. Though I took medications and attended physical therapy for them, my body continued to worsen.
Over the past seven years I’ve had up’s and down’s in my health. I’ve been hospitalized numerous times, bedridden, and told I wouldn't live past my senior year of high school by a doctor, but I’ve also taken trips to Jordan, gone cliff diving, attended college, and traveled across the country (needless to say that doctor was wrong, but more on that later.).
I’ve consistently returned to many different doctors in search of what exactly is going on in my body, but there has yet to be a definite answer.
Due to my illnesses, I’ve had to give up a lot. Things that may appear normal and easy to many people create an entirely new set of obstacles and challenges for myself. For a good portion of my life I’ve had to watch and monitor everything I’ve ever done. After dealing with these constant issues for so long, I’ve grown skeptical and apprehensive as to what I can and cannot do with my life. In so many ways I’ve stopped living and have just been surviving.
Though I am still facing many obstacles and my health issues are still present, this year I am setting out to do everything that scares me, everything that pushes me to new limits, everything that will eventually set me free. Even through all the uncertainty and setbacks that are to come I am determined to get to the bottom of my health and to find myself and my purpose in this world again.
So this is me….follow my story as I begin to live.
