Hi, I’m Jessie. I run PALS East Bay, a non-profit in Oakland, Ca that provides free vaccine clinics every 4 weeks for low and no income pet families / companions in and around Oakland, CA. In between clinics, I primarily serve homeless people’s pets directly at their encampments. 

For the past 5 years, I’ve been living & dealing with multiple chronic illnesses / chronic pain making my day to day unpredictable. 

I have days where I can’t stay on my feet at all due to pain and or fatigue. My right hand is often too painful to be able to bend my fingers. I have a lot of jaw pain, making chewing food challenging and also now have ongoing migraines. 

I’m not a medical doctor (or any kind of doctor lol) I’m just figuring out what works for me as I go and doing the best I can. If anything applies to your situation or someone you know, great. If not, that’s ok too – polite comments and conversations are encouraged. We’re all doing the best we can. I’d love to learn from others but we can do that while building each other up, not breaking anyone down. Be gentle please.

I have two really great kids, and some wonderful friends who have been incredibly supportive. I seriously don’t know how I’d have made it this far without them. Even when I choose to not do things / participate, just the understanding to let me be and knowing I can reach out at any time if I need something feels like a security blanket. I know that makes me luckier than many.