Angels help Jennifer through life-threatening journey

By TAMMIE TOLER

PRINCETON — Jennifer Sapp Lively is one tough woman.

She’s made a career in predominantly male fields, won six national and two international karate competitions and is a proud grandma at just the age of 32. But, the hardest battle she’s ever fought is the one to save her own life.

“My doctor has given me six months to a year to live, and I’m just not accepting that,” Lively declared Wednesday.

While the woman who has worked as a commercial roofer, security officer, private investigator and transformer builder has always suffered from two different types of seizures, her life-threatening illness took hold less than two years ago.

In 2006, Lively’s primary care physician prescribed Dilantin to control her seizures. Within four months, she noticed that her skin began “fluffing off” and became somewhat irritated.

The condition seemed to resolve itself after a while, but it returned with a vengeance within a few weeks. She began developing painful sores on her body and sought help first locally then in Charleston, where each test reported that Lively was positive for staphylcoccus aureus, commonly known as a staph infection.

The treatment she found in Charleston didn’t take care of the problem, and Lively wound up with sores so severe that she sought help at the Bowman-Gray burn unit in Winston-Salem, N.C.

It was there that physicians traced the cause of Lively’s illness.

“It was a Dilantin reaction,” she explained. “It was so severe and had gone untreated so long that it broke down my skin barrier and knocked down my autoimmune system. I’m not contagious to other people, but other people are contagious to me.”

Since that time, Lively has undergone many, many rounds of oral antibiotics, to the point that her body no longer responds to the medications at all. In effect, her body has built up a resistance to the medication designed to help it heal.

Her sores have gotten so bad that Lively has lost part of one eyelid and carries scars from surgeries, biopsies and wounds caused by the condition all over her body.

Although doctors in West Virginia have given her little reason to hope, she refuses to quit fighting until she has answers.

“Nobody can give me any definitive answers as to why this happened,” Lively said. “I’m not satisfied with that. I’m 32 years old, and I’m not quitting.”

Going out in public for any length of time is tough for Lively, who wears bandages all over her body to protect the sores that are still plaguing her, and her body’s fight against the infection that causes the wounds also spurs her seizures, which are now uncontrolled.

Still, she braved her illness and the hazards to visit the women she affectionately calls her guardian angels Wednesday, and to promote a fundraiser slated in her honor Saturday.

As a last resort, Lively and her friend Donna Walker requested an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic’s Metro Health Miracles of Hope Center, and they were granted an appointment.

Walker intends to drive Lively halfway of the trip on Oct. 25 and set out to reach Cleveland on the following day. The friends are hopeful that the visit will yield precious answers and hope, but Lively simply can’t afford to make the trip. Her health problems have depleted her resources.

“We’ve got the appointment, but we really need help with the expenses of getting there and keeping her there for treatment,” Walker said. “Even the Holiday Inns are $100 a night there.”

When Lively’s sister-in-law, Linda Robertson, shared her plight with the ladies of Eclipz salon on Stafford Drive, the women joined the effort and offered to sponsor and host a hot dog, bake and gift sale alongside the salon Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

“We were just astonished at what she was going through,” Eclipz co-owner Margie Faidley said. “We knew there had to be help for her somewhere.”

Lively just couldn’t say enough about the “big hearts” the ladies at Eclipz possess and have put to work for her.

“I believe there are angels among us,” she said. “There’s a saying in the Bible that you never know who you’re talking to; you could be talking to an angel. They’re my angels.”

For now, it takes most of the energy Lively has to fight her own illness, but there’s one person who always pushes her to get better — her granddaughter, Emma Burgess. At 19 months old, Emma is the driving force that Lively credits with keeping her alive.

“There are days when I don’t want to get out of bed, but her smile just touches my heart and makes me keep going. I’ve got to keep going for her,” Lively said.

And, if she can regain control of her health, Lively pledges to “pay it forward” and help as many people as possible. Wednesday, she vowed to educate the community on her condition and other infectious diseases, push for the acquisition of an infectious diseases expert locally and lend a helping hand for anyone in need. Talking with another media representative, she even offered a family in need her construction expertise in a rebuilding project.

“It’s time for a small community to come together and help each other,” she said.

Lively and the Eclipz team are praying for sunshine Saturday, but the benefit will go on, rain or shine.

Because she hoped to thank the businesses and people who have helped her thus far, Lively asked that the donors be listed. They included: Godfather’s Pawn; Princeton Bakery & Sanitary Supply; Magnolia Room; Flowers Bakery; Chuck Mathena Center; Judy Neil of Neil & Associates; Tina Fox and Calvin Smith; Alice and Rev. James Thomas; Melissa Blankenship; Barbara Stuart; Dottie O’Daily; Barbara Hall; Seaver Funeral Home and more.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.

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