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Hello, many of you know me as DV.bot in the Tiktok community. This is not easy for me to ask for help. I really do not know how. I look at myself and I try to present I am ok, and I will be fine. When in reality I have not been fine for a very long time. I did not want to make anyone worry or effect how they viewed me. I have always enjoy helping others, it comes natural to me, but if I ask for help now... I worry asking for help now it will let my friends and those I have helped in the past down. That I will not look as strong and as capable as you all have made me feel over the years. For me to reach out and ask for help, I am still struggling with the mindset and I know I can not do this alone as much as I want to. I know now more than ever I need to ask for help. Even now I have asked close friends if they would not mind helping me start this Gofund me.
Writing about myself is very hard. If I over share, I do not mean to, this is a whole new process for me. I will try and explain this as best I can for everyone. As many know, I lost my service dog of 8 years due to cancer in 2020. My life has absolutely spiral without him. There is not a single day I do not think about him and how much he changed my life. The freedom and happiness he gave me again when it was taken out from under me after the military. Leaving the military after almost 10 years of service and multiple deployments, I never felt I could ever be the same again after all that until my prior service dog came along and saved me. Medically I struggle daily with a lot of mental and physical issues from the military such as Complex-Post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and I battle with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that affects how the brain works. The TBI alone has resulted in me having seizures, migraines and other issues. I thought before I got my first service dog that I had lost all of my freedom. To plan or work with others to help me get daily stuff done... To try plan ahead for a seizure that could or could not happen in my day. It was no way to live, let alone me trying to learn how to adjust back to life. My previous service dog gave me back a piece of myself I never thought I would see again. He made me feel like a human again. I am the last living member of my family and he became the family I never knew I needed until I had him. I really had no support in these dramatic changes to my life, and I lost him and a massive part of myself in 2020. The hardest part for me is that I still struggle with is wrapping my mind around the fact that a service dog in the same class as medical devices. To tell me he is just an object to replace absolutely was to much. He was so much more. He still has a place in my heart and always will. I tried to tell myself I did not need help... I would be betraying him if I replaced him... In turn these last 2 years... I was sacrificing my own well being. He would not want this for me. I am not the person I know I can be and I am not the person I remember. When I had him, I felt free and comfortable being out of my house and around others. I felt safe again.
If you did not know, The transition from military to civilian life can be hard, 26% of veterans say that shifting to civilian life is very difficult and that percentage jumped to 48% for veterans who served after 9/11. In order to qualify for a service dog, a veteran must be diagnosed with a disability and you have to jump thru massive medical hoops. The VA will not pay for a service dog or pay for any medical expenses needed for the dog, they just provide a letter stating why a service member is in need of a service dog (kind of like a prescription). I was presented this once in a life time opportunity from a company that I have been on a waiting list for a dog for a year. This dog belonged to an elderly veteran, but his wife got sick and he was unable to care for him so he returned him to the company, and they then called me to ask if I wanted him because he surpasses all the requirements for a dog to be able to be a service dog. For a military veteran to get this chance is hard as there are massive waiting lists in place for veterans to get dogs. It usually takes 3-6 years to be matched with one, and then the training starts that can take up to a year. The reason for the long wait is those dogs are usually free. If a veteran wants one sooner, they have to pay for it out of pocket. I am currently 100% disabled, and that doesn't give much leeway to save up for a service dog. So for a veteran to get one, free or to pay for it, takes a massive amount of work.
I have been afforded the opportunity to get a service dog from an amazing company. He is a 9 month old German Shepherd currently in training as we speak. It is going to take about 9 months to fully train him for what I need, and after that he is my service dog for life. I am hoping that I can get the funding together so that I can start to live again and be the me that I miss.
*All funds go directly to the company who is currently training the service dog
Writing about myself is very hard. If I over share, I do not mean to, this is a whole new process for me. I will try and explain this as best I can for everyone. As many know, I lost my service dog of 8 years due to cancer in 2020. My life has absolutely spiral without him. There is not a single day I do not think about him and how much he changed my life. The freedom and happiness he gave me again when it was taken out from under me after the military. Leaving the military after almost 10 years of service and multiple deployments, I never felt I could ever be the same again after all that until my prior service dog came along and saved me. Medically I struggle daily with a lot of mental and physical issues from the military such as Complex-Post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and I battle with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that affects how the brain works. The TBI alone has resulted in me having seizures, migraines and other issues. I thought before I got my first service dog that I had lost all of my freedom. To plan or work with others to help me get daily stuff done... To try plan ahead for a seizure that could or could not happen in my day. It was no way to live, let alone me trying to learn how to adjust back to life. My previous service dog gave me back a piece of myself I never thought I would see again. He made me feel like a human again. I am the last living member of my family and he became the family I never knew I needed until I had him. I really had no support in these dramatic changes to my life, and I lost him and a massive part of myself in 2020. The hardest part for me is that I still struggle with is wrapping my mind around the fact that a service dog in the same class as medical devices. To tell me he is just an object to replace absolutely was to much. He was so much more. He still has a place in my heart and always will. I tried to tell myself I did not need help... I would be betraying him if I replaced him... In turn these last 2 years... I was sacrificing my own well being. He would not want this for me. I am not the person I know I can be and I am not the person I remember. When I had him, I felt free and comfortable being out of my house and around others. I felt safe again.
If you did not know, The transition from military to civilian life can be hard, 26% of veterans say that shifting to civilian life is very difficult and that percentage jumped to 48% for veterans who served after 9/11. In order to qualify for a service dog, a veteran must be diagnosed with a disability and you have to jump thru massive medical hoops. The VA will not pay for a service dog or pay for any medical expenses needed for the dog, they just provide a letter stating why a service member is in need of a service dog (kind of like a prescription). I was presented this once in a life time opportunity from a company that I have been on a waiting list for a dog for a year. This dog belonged to an elderly veteran, but his wife got sick and he was unable to care for him so he returned him to the company, and they then called me to ask if I wanted him because he surpasses all the requirements for a dog to be able to be a service dog. For a military veteran to get this chance is hard as there are massive waiting lists in place for veterans to get dogs. It usually takes 3-6 years to be matched with one, and then the training starts that can take up to a year. The reason for the long wait is those dogs are usually free. If a veteran wants one sooner, they have to pay for it out of pocket. I am currently 100% disabled, and that doesn't give much leeway to save up for a service dog. So for a veteran to get one, free or to pay for it, takes a massive amount of work.
I have been afforded the opportunity to get a service dog from an amazing company. He is a 9 month old German Shepherd currently in training as we speak. It is going to take about 9 months to fully train him for what I need, and after that he is my service dog for life. I am hoping that I can get the funding together so that I can start to live again and be the me that I miss.
*All funds go directly to the company who is currently training the service dog