Help Train Nellie - Neurological Disorders & Decline

Dear Friends, Family, and Kind Supporters,

My name is Leo, and I'm on a journey with what is currently an unknown neurological condition, PTSD, and severe anxiety. I'm also in testing for many comorbidities such as POTS, hEDS, gastroparesis, epilepsy, and seeing both a pulmonologist and cardiologist for an extremely low resting oxygen rate. These conditions have become increasingly challenging, causing me to lose the ability to live my life as I always have.

For well over four years, doctors dismissed my progressive symptoms as “stress." It wasn't until recently that someone finally listened, revealing lesions on my brain, leading to the potential diagnosis of MS. The road ahead is a bit uncertain and honestly scary, but my first full MS clinic is later this month and then another in June. - Since then I have been since 1 tot 2 times a month by one of the best doctors I could be seeing at Riverside for MS / Neurological conditions and is working endlessly to help me. He's ordered necessary testing, helped me through flare ups to what extent can be done, and referred me to some other amazing specialists who are truly trying to figure out the cause rather than just band-aid fix everything like has been done in the past.

While the partly-trained service dog we were hoping to acquire at first didn't work out due to timing and funds, my sweet Nellie is home with me now and is doing great. She's an absolute sweetheart and shows so much promise at being able to provide exactly the kind of support I'll need from her both physically and emotionally.

Each of her lessons right now for basic obedience are $100 1-2 times a month with a trainer I really trust and have been working closely with, they also trained my friends excellent service dog Freya several years ago. As Nellies training progresses however, she will start doing board/trains instead of lessons at home so that they can be significantly more thorough and take away the distractions that come from working at home. Her first one will be a full month and totals to $3,400.00 but it encompasses a great many things that I am physically unable to do myself in terms of training, we're hoping to have this done by the end of the year, but it will truly just come down to funding.

After this month long board and train Nellie will still be working with APK on her tasks frequently until she can consistently do them on her own. Right now she's still very young, so this is something that can take a while, but the chances of her being able to properly bond with me to take help assist me were much higher than if we got a dog who was older to begin with.

All funds acquired here and anything that I can spare will go toward these trainings anything additional will go to further training as my symptoms progress and her tasks need adjusted to fit those needs as even now when I go into flare-ups they are completely debilitating for anywhere from hours to days.

For some backstory:

In 2018 and many years before, I was someone who could hike 20 miles in a day and love every second of it. In 2021, hiking the mountains of CO was the most beautiful experience of my life, though it was starting to become a struggle. Now in 2024, at the age of 25, I find myself completely unable to walk or drive some days due to uncontrollable numbness in parts of my body and I walk with a cane for stability each day. (An update to this part being that I am no longer able to drive at all due to my seizures)

Watching this progress has been very hard at times emotionally, no longer being able to do many of the things I love without assistance and essentially grieving the life that I did and could have had because it seems like so many of my dreams were taken away from me. Regaining any sense of normalcy in my life would be a monumental relief. Even having the companionship would help me immensely with things that seem simple like a grocery trip that would usually send me into a panic attack or a twenty minute sit on the floor due to a symptom flare.

Nellers will be trained in mobility assistance such as bracing, counter-balance, item retrieval, medication retrieval and picking up dropped items as well as other mobility tasks. She will also be trained in DPT, behavior interruption, and to take me to an exit if needed. From mobility support to emotional comfort, she has been and will be by my side, offering both solace and assistance.

Any funds will directly contribute to Nellie, her task training, as well as her care while being trained, ensuring that she’s properly equipped to assist me as my symptoms both flare and evolve. As fully trained service dogs are usually well over $15,000, I’ve been extremely lucky to find Nellers and be able to work so closely with APK.

Thank you for considering my cause and for any contribution you can offer, including sharing this page.

All my gratitude,

Leo