This is an updated page, to help raise the last $18,000 to bring Milo home as my cardiac alert service dog!

Original post:

I'm not great at asking for help, but here I am.

Hi, my name is Teja. In 2019 I was diagnosed with multiple forms of Dysautonomia, which essentially means my autonomic nervous system does not function properly. My specific types of dysautonomia cause a lot of really debilitating physiological problems. I have a lot of diagnoses but the ones that affect me the most day-to-day include severe hypovolemic and hyperadrenergic postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, orthostatic intolerance, and hypermobile EDS. Because of these chronic conditions, my heart rate gets too high (200+bpm) and I faint, I’ve had a TIA from a blood pressure spike, I’ve had concussions and at least one TBI from fainting, my joints regularly subluxate and occasionally dislocate, I live in constant pain and fear. And that’s okay. Plenty of people suffer as much if not more. But I can’t keep functioning like this, and I finally found a glimmer of hope. My cardiologist recommended I get a service dog. Mainly for cardiac alert so I’m able to keep myself safe and conscious, and I'll be able to get my driver's license back and pursue a career in my field of study! And here’s where asking for help comes into play. Service dogs are EXPENSIVE. I’m fortunate enough to have a couple of companies accept me as a candidate for my own service dog which is very exciting!! A service dog would grant me levels of freedom and happiness that I haven’t felt in years. And I can’t do it alone. My service dog would cost approximately $55,000 after all of the task training to help me through the day. That however feels entirely unattainable to me, so they’re going to train the more vital tasks, and allow me to save up for the remainder of the training, which saves about $15,000. That being said I’m asking for help to raise the remaining amount of $40,000. I know that is a lot of money. I know that not everyone can help but if you can help at all or can share this with others, I am and will be eternally grateful. Love and peace to you all.