Jenny fights a disease that can be visually discrete. She might look perfectly fine on the outside most days, but internally she is battling her disease daily. In her sophomore year of college in 2008, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that affects her small and large intestine and colon known as Crohn’s Disease. Since then, she has been to countless specialists, hospitals, and doctors in the search for some sort of medication that would help her manage her symptoms. 

 

In 2019, she was at her absolute worst as her disease progressively worsened. At that time, she struggled to even walk down the stairs to get a simple glass of water. She could barely make it to the bathroom some days. She slept all day, could not eat, and spent most of the day in the bathroom as her Chron’s got the best of her. 

 

Her doctors told her that there was just one treatment option and if that did not work then she would need to have surgery resulting in having a colostomy bag and likely preventing her from becoming a mother. As you can only imagine, she was devastated at receiving this kind of information at the age of 30. This procedure the doctors spoke of was going to alter her life drastically. It was at that period of time when she truly wanted to give up. But it wasn’t until she remembered all the beautiful things she would be missing out on if she proceeded with the procedure. Her husband reminded her how strong she was to get this far along, which shifted her mindset to keep going. 

 

She then decided to fight. Jenny prayed and hoped that this last medication, this last stretch effort would indeed take and would help her enough to avoid the surgery. Weighing under 90lbs, with little to none muscle mass, walking around as skin and bone, she fought hard.

 

The medication slowly started to work. Her symptoms lessened more and more as time went on. She began to feel herself again. She began weight training to regain her strength. Eight months into training she got stronger and felt better, so she decided to train for a bikini bodybuilding competition. She knew it would be an incredibly difficult task for someone like her to do this, but she was up to the challenge. She thought to herself if she could just give one person hope who was in the same circumstances she was in two years ago then all the prep and sacrifice she was making to prepare for this competition would be worth it. 

 

This show was a way to prove to herself that she could overcome one of the most difficult periods of her life by having gone into a prep with extremely difficult restrictions. She was determined to walk on that stage to prove it to not only herself but for all of those people who think they couldn’t do it. From there, “Chronic Warrior” was born.

 

Through her ongoing battle, Jenny strives to impact lives, to empower those affected by incurable diseases, and to offer her support to all. She is a chronic warrior and is here to remind you that your struggles or hardships are not what define you. How you overcome them is what makes you a warrior.