Crystal's Service Dog

Hi my name is Crystal. I'm very lucky and fortunate enough to have many people see that it is a necessity for me to have a service dog. To give the people an understanding of why I need financial support, here is some of my background. 

It all started about 10 years ago when I went through something really tragic with my youngest daughter. Something a mom should never have to hear her 5 year old daughter is going through. An hour after finding out, I collapsed with a grand mal seizure. I was rushed to the hospital and the doctor's didn't understand why I would have a seizure. I had many tests done year after year with still no answers. It was 4 years after my first seizure that I was back in the ER. My heart rate was so faint that the machine couldn't pick it up and it was thought I was flat lined. It was then, a doctor at the ER finally figured I have Conversion Disorder.  When I am under an extreme amount of stress, a number of things can happen to me that I cannot control. Seizures, heartache, and strokes are just the major things that can happen.  I can often be found stuttering or having uncontrollable muscle spasms throughout a day. 

Conversion disorder is just one of my many health problems but it is the one that makes life seem almost impossible some days. When I have a grand mal seizure it can take up to 4 days to recover from it depending on how long the seizure lasted. Some of my other medical problems are fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, genetic disorder 16 P 13.2. That's just a few more of them, but I'm sure that you can see now why I'm grateful for a service dog. 

This past winter, I was homeless and staying at Room at the Inn, the women’s cold weather shelter in Corvallis.  The stress of living my days in my car or on the streets was taking its toll on me.  I was fortunate enough to have the support of staff and volunteers who helped me adopt Sunshine, with the intention to have her trained as a full-time service dog. 

I am asking you to help me make sure I can get Sunshine the training she needs to help me keep my seizures to a minimum and provide support when symptoms are strong.  The funds from this GoFundMe will help pay for her adoption fee, puppy obedience class, and ultimately the Service dog training that we would go through together. 

  I'm thankful every day that I don't have an episode. My days are much better since I’ve had Sunshine by my side. She makes it easier to go out into public and not constantly be questioning whether I'm going to have an episode. 
 
Thank you to all the people at Room at the Inn. Your loving support for people like me and all the other wonderful women you support. This community is blessed to have all of you wonderful people. 

And THANK YOU for donating to help me keep Sunshine by my side and help me with both my physical and mental health.  Your support means the world to me.

This GoFundMe is organized and managed by Crystal's Case Manager, Ailiah Schafer, and funding is going through Room at the Inn's account manager John Reed. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.