Sary versus Epilepsy
Donation protected
My name is Sary Clark and I am asking for your help in my battle against epilepsy.
For 20 of my 24 years I have been struggling with this frustrating and treacherous condition. I am a fighter, I've overcome the odds and accomplished most of what I've set my mind to despite the intrusion of seizures that have never been able to be brought under control. I manage, but in recent years the toll they are taking on my function seems to be worsening.
I'm a go-getter, it's true, but like everyone I've encountered bumps in the road. I received a scholarship to go to an excellent school, Hendrix College. During my third year at Hendrix, I had a seizure that lasted over an hour and a half. They call this 'status epilepticus' and it changed my life forever. I was forced to drop out of school and seek more thorough but expensive medical treatment. I found myself in a great amount of debt after college and technically unable to work due to the unrelenting nature of my condition. I have worked anyway, and parlayed my love for the outdoors into a lucrative position as a white-water raft guide, despite the limitations of my epilepsy. I now live in Alaska, the Last Frontier, where I continue to pursue my love of nature.
I know that my grit and determination can get me over most obstacles in my life and I believe my epilepsy is one of these obstacles. I have held out hope through it all that I will overcome, but lately hope itself is not enough. Each seizure slowly degrades my cognitive ability and compromises my personal power to manage all aspects of my life. I've run the gamut of neurologists with little success; it seems they simply do not fully understand the magnitude of this disorder or how to effectively treat it. Years ago I reached the point where I realized that despite the memory loss, the vision and hearing changes, the uncontrolled seizures, that my doctors believed this was "the best it was ever going to get." I refuse to believe that.
I married this year, on September 7th, to a wonderful and caring man who is deeply supportive and understanding of my condition. Together we have researched all available treatment approaches in an effort to increase our own efficacy against this condition. We've looked into traditional and alternative/cutting edge treatments. In the course of our research, we discovered a new treatment about which we are cautiously optimistic (and excited!): Brainwave Optimization.
Essentially, Brainwave Optimization is a treatment that strives to balance the electrical waves in your brain through sound therapy. It is considered to be a non-invasive, holistic treatment of the brain that helps in all sorts of neurological problems, not just epilepsy. I've spoken at length with Kat Michelle, a practitioner of Brainwave Optimization in the treatment of epilepsy. She, too, refuses to believe that my current state is the best it is going to get. Her stories of success are so encouraging to me. She gives me such hope that I can be better, that my seizures do not have to be the obstacle in my life that they've been for so long.
The cost of this and other treatments is prohibitive to us; expenses for this treatment alone, including travel and lodging, will be approximately $4000.
Please, will you help me along to get a bit closer to my goal of affording this therapy and improving my quality of life? Every little bit helps.
You can learn more about this amazing new therapy here:
And if you have any questions about exactly what your donations are going to, please feel free to contact me at the email address listed. Thank you so much again.
Organizer
Sary Clark
Organizer
Anchorage, AK
