Katie's Paws For POTS

Throughout my life, I had many “different” symptoms and issues including breaking 11 bones throughout my childhood, chronic headaches and migraines, joint pain, and jaw issues. It was not until 2018 that I finally got some answers as to what was going on inside my body. I have accumulated many diagnoses that all stem from a genetic issue called hypermobile Ehler’s Danlos Syndrome. This causes all of the connective tissue in my body to be “too stretchy” and causes many different diagnoses including vascular compressions MALS, SMAS, and nutcracker syndrome, a condition called MCAS which causes me to have allergic reactions to my environment, Chiari Malformation where my brain is being pushed into my spinal canal, gastroparesis which is a paralyzed stomach, and POTS or Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.

In order to get relief from some of these symptoms, I have had several major surgeries which have given me a better quality of life but these are lifelong conditions with no cures. As a result of this, I have to travel all over the country in order to find doctors who understand these rare conditions. And I even rely on a feeding tube and a port for IV fluids and nutrition.

My illnesses have forced me to miss out on a lot of big things in my life like traveling and a planned trip to Europe. Instead of spending my 21st birthday out with friends, I was at Cleveland Clinic discussing feeding tubes with a surgeon. I even had to medically withdraw from college, which I loved, and switch to school online. I have big goals for my life but in order to meet them, I have to be independent.

POTS is one of my biggest issues. It is a form of dysautonomia which means that the things that my body automatically controls, like heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, and blood flow, do not work. This causes my heart rate to spike and my blood pressure to drop every time I stand up, causing fainting and so many other symptoms. I have to use a wheelchair for shopping or on outings requiring a lot of walking. As you can probably imagine, this makes it very hard for me to be independent and I don’t feel comfortable going out on my own, even just to the store. These symptoms have gotten so severe that I had to switch to online college because I could not handle independent living.

This is where a service dog would help. This dog will be specially trained for tasks that will help me be independent again!

He will be trained to perform many tasks including

-Deep pressure therapy

-Go get help/fainting response

-Alert to me before I faint

-Mobility assistance

-Retrieval

-Leg elevation

-Call for help

-And much, much more!

I have been accepted into a program called Angel Retrievers and will receive a 1-year-old english cream golden retriever named Beau, or his brother Benny! I will go pick him up in Texas in October when we will be taught how to work together! I have had some very kind and generous family already donate most of the funds but I still need to raise $6,000 more for my dog and to cover the travel expenses for me to get to Texas for 6 days while we train together. Thank you SO much to everyone who shared my story or to anyone who decided to donate!