My friend Emily… or really her daughter, needs our help.

Below is a recent post sharing their story.

Life update! Why I disappeared from Facebook. My youngest child has epilepsy and in recent months had a massive relapse. It's been really hard to talk about let alone share with others.

It's a frustrating disease as there aren't any signs of what's going to happen before it happens and it's incredibly disruptive. Our child is completely "normal" in every other way without further medical complications. If you met our family, you would not know that we were dealing with a severe medical issue and I'm sure people have wondered why we hover over our child at the playground. She goes from running to dropping onto the ground with a seizure. Absolutely no warning.

The very first time this happened it was incredibly terrifying and we didn't know what was wrong. I actually thought our child was dying in my arms. Since then, we have learned so much about epilepsy and what it does to the body. A lot of people can tell when they're going to have a seizure but because our child is so young and cannot communicate or doesn't even know what's going to happen, we are left not knowing about a seizure until it happens.

Our relapse took us from enjoying life to talking about brain surgery in a very short amount of time. Epilepsy is typically controlled with medicine and we went from being a controlled patient to completely uncomfortable. As far as we know there is no reason the medication failed all of a sudden. We have been through a series of medications to try to stabilize her but none of them are working anymore.

When the relapse started we were traveling and were semi-remote. We're very thankful for EMS and all of the help they have given us during this journey. As we made plans on what to do to get back close to a city and the best medical care we could find we actually had to drop our RV in a parking lot so we could get into the hospital ER.

On the journey we have met so many people who have been kind and considerate and helpful. As we processed through the different scenarios of what it was going to look like going forward the doctors came to two different actions: VNS implant or brain surgery. It's terrifying to think about putting the life of your child into the hands of doctors to operate on the brain. Because we have kept very detailed and documented notes of everything going on, the neurology and epilepsy team were able to give us the course of action that we will take. Thankfully, we are ending up with a smaller less invasive procedure of a VNS until she is older, as the brain changes as it grows.

After being in four different medical systems we are very thankful that we ended up at an incredible hospital that specialize in children and have an incredible epilepsy Doctor, not only that, but their entire team is also incredible. Our case has been a little more unusual, but we have documented everything so well and they have been able to make decisions in a fast manner. To us it doesn't feel fast but when we really look at the medical system and how fast things work, we have moved very quickly. I expect that there will be some hard months coming as we prep for procedures and talk about the course of action.

I've always considered myself a strong person, but this has been a completely different level of stress. When we are asked, "How can we help?" most of the time we don't have an answer. Pray. We have been overwhelmed with the number of family, friends and clients who have checked in on us and offered their support.

THIS IS WHERE WE CAN HELP.

I’d like to help raise money for a medical companion dog that can detect an oncoming epileptic seizure. I asked Emily about this and she said they did look into this and it would be $30-$50,000. This is a lot for a young family, but it’s not too large for family, friends, or people who can relate to this helplessness.

Please help me get this little girl her new best friend. Please share this story with others, so those who would want to help, can.

Emily's daughter playing in the hospital after 3 weeks in the hospital.