Sitting on the uncomfortable, paper sheet that covers the even more uncomfortable bed in the doctor’s office, junior Ashley Macha waits patiently for answers about her health. Ashley who’d been experiencing stomach pains for years, nausea after eating, and lactose intolerance, never thought she’d have problems with her gallbladder.

The gallbladder is an organ that helps digest and break down food. Unfortunately, Ashley’s was starting to fail her. Her gynecologist performed several tests and found out her gallbladder was not performing at the rate it should have been.

“My gallbladder ejection fraction was extremely low,” Ashley said. “The normal is 35-65%. 35% and under is extremely low, and mine was performing at 9%.”

Ashley’s doctor told her that she needed to have surgery to remove the gallbladder in the next week. Unfortunately the surgery didn’t help like she thought it would, and she started to fall behind in school. Her two friends, juniors Destiny Cullum and Kyleigh Williams would try and keep Ashley up to date while her homebound was being approved.

“None of us wanted to watch her fall behind,” Kyleigh said. ”I helped bring her homework and catch up on what she missed.”

Her friends kept Ashley afloat during her difficult time.

“I mainly sent her notes so she would know what she was coming back to,” Destiny said.

Ashley left school to complete school at home. She believed it would help her catch up but in the end it gave her more stress. She started Homebound last March and only planned to do it for a month, but ended up having to finish her sophomore year at home. Homebound is a program that allows students who cannot attend school, still learn from teachers but from home.

“The teachers were both only allowed to come two hours a week, so most weeks I only had ‘school’ [for only] three or four days,” Ashley said. “I had to do the learning for seven out of the eight classes on my own.”

Ashley has made a slow, but steady, recovery. With the help of her friends and supportive mother, she pushed through last year and is back at Heritage this year. She is finding her way around and finding herself again.

”I don’t find myself getting sick as often as last year and I’m happy to be back at school with my friends this year,” Ashley said.