HELP US GET CHLOE A SERVICE DOG!

For those of you that don’t know, our lives changed on 10/20/2024. Chloe had her first seizure that morning, and to say we were terrified is an understatement. Since her first seizure, we have had EEGs, EKGs, we've seen 2 neurologists, a cardiologist, she has started therapy (CBT), we see a psychiatrist, we stay busy to say the least. Chloe has been diagnosed with epilepsy, but she's also been diagnosed with PNES (psychogenic non-epileptic seizures). While some of her seizures are true epileptic seizures, some of them are non-epileptic. While the non-epileptic ones are real seizures, they are not caused by electrical activity in the brain; instead, these are caused by trauma, stress, or anxiety. And it doesn’t have to be trauma, stress, or anxiety in the moment; it can be a subconscious thing from years ago. These seizures often range from ‘passing out’ to convulsions (sometimes just one part of the body, sometimes her full body) to being able to hear but not talk. She's had at least 3 epileptic seizures that we are aware of. Non-epileptic seizures can happen between 1 and 12 or more times a day.

So how have our lives changed? Well, Chloe can’t shut a door to sleep, use the bathroom, or even shower. She has a camera in her room so we can see any seizure activity in her sleep. She can no longer hang out in her room. She's unable to be as active as she once was. She struggles with completing a full week of school. Work is sometimes hard. She can no longer be left home alone. She's unable to drive anything until she is 6 months seizure-free (we currently stand at 4 days, and the longest we have been is 16 days). Her body gets tired and sore (convulsive seizures are equivalent to your body running a marathon in 2-4 minutes). I’m not an expert on her health, and every day we learn something new. But we are trying to get our girl to some normalcy; we are hoping a service dog can help with this. To you that have questions, ask me. I may not know the answers, but we can learn together.

Other diagnoses she has also received: ADHD, dysautonomia, depression, anxiety, and PTSD.