Meet Jenneh Rishe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenneh Rishe.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I have been a Registered Nurse for over 13 years, working in many different specialty areas such as surgical trauma, oncology, hematology/bone marrow transplant, internal medicine, and most currently, primary care medicine. In 2015, I started experiencing some strange health issues that turned into a 4-year search looking for a diagnosis.

After about 10 specialist visits, multiple trips to the ER, and so many tests, I was diagnosed with Endometriosis. Endometriosis is a full-body, inflammatory disease in which when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus ends up in other places in the body causing pain and organ dysfunction. It is estimated to affect 1 in 10 women/people AFAB and generally takes 7-10 years to get a diagnosis.

Even though it’s such a common disease, I found that not many people knew much about it– myself included. After experiencing the difficult path to diagnosis due to the lack of awareness, rampant misinformation, and medical bias that exists, in 2017, I decided to use my nursing background and passion for education to start The Endometriosis Coalition, Inc– a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to raise awareness, promote reliable education, and increase research funding for endometriosis.

After being diagnosed with endometriosis, I was later additionally diagnosed with a multitude of other chronic conditions (SIBO, infertility, lupus, anxiety, and 2 heart conditions that I had open-heart surgery for in 2019). I began “blogging” my experiences and insights as someone living with chronic illness on Instagram, and over the years that space has grown into a place for education, community, and encouragement. If I had to give this work a title, I guess you could say I’m a “health influencer”

I’ve always enjoyed writing, and have written both academically and creatively. But, when Covid started, I finally bit the bullet to create something I’ve always dreamed of: a book! My debut book, Part of You, Not All of You: Shared Wisdom and Guided Journaling for Life with Chronic illness will be released this June!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not! First and foremost, I had never started a non-profit before, so I had to do a lot of research. Things like CA state and federal requirements, taxes, etc., were completely foreign to me. You know, things they don’t cover in nursing school?

I leaned into everyone and anyone I knew who could give me guidance on topics such as building my executive board and leadership team, how specific or broad our mission statement should be, fundraising… literally everything. I basically went to “Non-Profit 101” school all on my own.

It was challenging, because I still had my full-time job as a nurse, and also had to continue managing my own health along the way. There were periods of building The Endometriosis Coalition (The Endo Co for short) where I had to completely step away for months due to surgery recovery, or generally not feeling well.

Those periods were really rough, and I often questioned if this whole thing was just too big for me.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialize in the chronic illness/disability advocacy spaces.

This includes hosting educational seminars and talks, educating via social media, collaborating with local and federal government officials, sharing my personal story in order to help others in any way that I can, and giving commentary about relevant topics to press when needed.

My goal in my work is to educate and encourage people suffering from chronic illness, advocate for their needs, and teach them how to live a full and fulfilled life that doesn’t center around their condition.

I am most proud of my debut book: Part of You, Not All of You: Shared Wisdom and Guided Journaling for Life with Chronic Illness. It was truly a labor of love that stemmed from wanting to see more resources available to chronically ill people– because resources are severely lacking. I started writing it at the beginning of 2020 when the pandemic first started. It was a difficult project because there was nothing like it on the market. I had to imagine it from scratch.

Every single detail of the book was an original thought or concept. It was both fun, and challenging to write! When I first transitioned from practitioner to patient and found myself suddenly thrown into a whole new chronic illness world that I knew absolutely nothing about, I found that there were no resources to help navigate the psychological/psychosocial aspects of life with a chronic illness.

Every book on the market was focused on symptom and medication tracking or how to medically manage my disease. But what about all of the other things that come along with chronic illness? I was searching for something that helped me work through aspects such as relationships, friendships, identity, and self-worth. I couldn’t find one, so, I decided to create one myself.

Part of You Not All of You is a collection of words of affirmation, short stories of my own and words of encouragement from me, words of inspiration from others living with chronic illness, and guided journal prompts to help the reader process their life with chronic illness, and arrive at a place where they accept that their illness may be a part of their identity, but not all of their identity.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I learned many lessons through Covid, but I’d say the biggest was just a reemphasizing of being grateful for the life that I have, even if it isn’t perfect.

It taught me to focus on the here and now because tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us. I also learned how important it is for me to surround myself with people that inspire me, push me to be a better version of myself, and have empathy towards what my life as a chronically ill person is like– especially during a pandemic.

At a time when things felt so hopeless, having encouraging people in my corner was so important in helping me survive the last several years.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.jennehrishe.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeabove_illness/?hl=en
• Other: www.theendo.co