Helping with kAt’s medical care

Near the end of 2021, my sister kAt started to experience problems with her memory in tandem with non-epileptic seizures. Her episodes of memory loss (perhaps more aptly termed episodes of dissociation) are temporary but severe. She often has no idea who her closest friends and family are, where she is, or why she’s there. Understandably, she often becomes paranoid and runs away to hide and find safety. When her episodes end, kAt has no recollection of the events that take place - aside from the occasional flashback. Over the last couple of months, her episodes have become longer and more frequent. And of late, she’s spent more time “in” her episodes than “out of” her episodes. At the end of January, she was hospitalized during an episode after she started making plans to end her own life.

The nature and extremity of kAt’s condition have made it difficult for her to keep up with her everyday life. If you know kAt, you know that she’s a brilliant student and an incredibly hard worker. As you can probably imagine though, school would be difficult if you missed most of your classes on account of dissociation. She’s held a job since she’s been old enough to work (usually multiple at the same time), but since her condition has progressed, it’s been impossible for her to consistently attend work - though she has tried. What’s most troubling about things is that while kAt is having paranoid episodes, she runs away. This makes it incredibly difficult to keep her safe, and even when we are able to find her, she usually tries to escape. Again, as you can probably imagine, it is beyond dangerous for a young Black girl to be alone in a giant metropolitan, especially at night, especially while she’s confused, and especially when she’s prone to seizures.

Initially, her case was being followed by neurologist Dr. Tychicus Chen, who ultimately dropped her case once it was determined that her seizures were non-epileptic. kAt has had an ongoing struggle to find doctors who are willing to take on her case or who even believe what’s going on, as she doesn’t exhibit any of her symptoms while she’s lucid. That said, while her hospitalization was a very difficult experience, she has gotten connected to better doctors and more resources. Moving forward, she’ll be followed by doctors at the BC Neuropsychiatry Program. She’s also been prescribed medications that we’re hoping minimize the frequency and duration of her episodes. She’ll also be attending Dialectical Behavioural Therapy sessions to build emotional regulation skills that may help prevent the onset (or triggering) of her episodes. To date, she still has no diagnosis.

In the next couple of weeks and months, we’re hoping that the specialists at the Neuropsychiatry Program will be able to give us more answers about what exactly is causing kAt’s memory loss and seizures. Moreover, we’re hoping that some of the treatment options we’ve been exploring prove fruitful. But we need a bit of help! There have been a number of financial costs associated with kAt’s care, and any assistance that folks can provide in covering those costs would be immensely appreciated.

Money from this GoFundMe would go toward:

Zelle and/or interac e-trasnfers are cool too! (Send to [email redacted])

With love! Xoxoxoxo <3