Help for Grizzly
Donation protected
8/17: so excited. I will be getting Griz back Tuesday night! I can’t wait. The hope is that is training will be over and we will just need time for he and I to learn how each other can work together.
Any amount of donations would be greatly appreciated as we need to be much closer to our goal amount.
I can not express how much healing having the service dog will mean to me and my family, and my overall health. Please help us if you are able. ❤️
7/28 Update: We have found the perfect dog. His name is Grizzly and he is incredible! All we need now is help with the final donations so we can bring him back home.
We did a trial run with Shera and she was good but became very defensive of me, even with our kids and at church so we had to return her. I was devastated for about a month. We prayed and put it in gods hands and at the beginning of this month I did a two week trial with Griz. He is much smaller and very sweet. He is amazing with the kids and our family. He does good with me at work.
Currently he is back with our trainer completing what we hope is his final training and hope he will be done in the next 2 weeks.
I feel a bit lost right now as it was incredible how much better I felt and could more easily function when he was around. If there is anyway you can donate we would be extremely grateful as this has been an incredibly long journey and I’m praying everything gets workout so I can restart recovery with Griz.
Please share if you are called to go so. Have a blessed day!
Medical update: getting Shera for a trial run later this week. Any donations would be greatly appreciated. Have a blessed week!
5/15/18
Today was interesting. I am on vacation for the first time since my leave that ended in mid July ‘17. Since then I have been through a lot as my medical mysteries continue.
I started out the morning by getting the kids off to school, and Lin headed off to urgent care. Payton n I headed off to my Dr appt with my primary. With everything that I’ve been through in the last several years she has been 1 of 2 in the medical field I actually trust. She has listened to me cry through appts n test results. She never rushes you through an appointment and has always been willing to consider and look into whatever recent research I bring to her. But today was my last visit with her, as she is moving to Peds full time. Happy for her, sucks for me, but this also gives us another trusted option for kids care.
We talked through my current needs n concerns n she ordered lots of blood test to see what has changed n to test a few newer things. It was sad to see her go, but I’m thankful for her during some very dark n rough times.
I picked up the twins n brought them home and then our saving grace, my Aunt Debbie came to watch the kids for the afternoon n evening as she does every week. Lin has strep n we kept her hidden in the bedroom so she could just rest.
I headed off the lab and had 7 vials of blood drawn, which is sadly not a record for a single visit, but I was greeted by the front desk lady taking my paperwork and saying “oh wow, you are getting a lot done today”... I replied with a chuckle n said yes ma’am.
Getting my blood taken was an adventure as the lady put a tourniquet on my arm but as she was gathering all the vials, the young lady in the next chair didn’t look well and tells her lab ladies that she has low BP issues, so they promptly put her feet up and her eyes rolled back into her head n she start convulsing. So all 3 lab ladies immediately she to her, n yelling for more help. This event lasted several minutes n then my lab lady looks back to me n said “oh sorry is your arm going to fall off”, I said no n that I understood.
I then drove to Columbus to get a massage at Dublin Family Chiropractor, Eric and Dr Jaime are exactly what I needed this afternoon. I love the care I receive here!!!!
My vacation time was scheduled as it expires the end of the month and we could get coverage for me at my store this week. Originally the plan was just to work around the house with the kids still in school but much seems that it will be spent yet again juggling Dr visits.
Outside of my PTSD, the hardest fight is chronic fatigue. I can drink a energy drink n still lay down n sleep. N if I’m up past 11pm I will stay up until 2-3am without taking anything.
No matter how much sleep I get, I struggle with alarms for at least an hour each morning. Driving back n forth is getting more n more difficult each week. N when I’m asleep it is very difficult to get me to wake up.
I also had a follow up with my meds Dr n we are just tweaking one of the current meds for now. I have been on antibiotics for 3 of the last 4 weeks Because of the infection of my finger. I have been referred to a dermatologist for my finger as it will need to be reconstructed a little bit from the swelling n lancing procedures of the last few weeks. It is getting better but it is still extremely painful.
And we are also looking towards the end of the week to have a trial run with Shera. Long term hope is that Shera will calm things down so that I can start coming off the meds soon.
4/22 update.
We ask for prayers for our family to finally get some medical answers in several areas by the end of the month. We have a couple of Dr visits this week that are critical for us to move to I another treatment path.
I also am fighting an infection in 2 of my fingers that the Drs can’t fully identify. It is 1 finger on each hand, making doing things a challenge. I’m grateful that Lin has been around to help tie my shoes in the morning. My 1 finger is really bad, and at the 2nd Dr visit this week they choose to lance it twice, which only made it twice as painful. I’m also wearing a finger guard to try to protect it as much as possible.
Larger concern is that the infection wasn’t responding to the 1st antibiotic I was given on Monday, plus the topical meds, so they added a 2nd antibiotic that is 500mg 4x a day. So we have to watch how this might play out this week.
This is course of meds is adding 6 more pills to my cocktail n I’m concerned with how many different meds that they are prescribing and how much pain I’m in, not to mention if they will be any long term problems from these meds.
Good news is that I finally get an appointment at the pain clinic on the 30th.
These last couple of week have been extremely challenging for our family medically and emotionally. And we have some pivotal decisions to make this week as we advocate for our family for what we need and not allow Drs to push us towards paths that do not sit right with us.
We have just a little more than week left in the month and we are trying to raise these final funds.
We greatly appreciate all the support from those who have already donated. I am hoping to have another session with Shera this week, and things are setup with work. Any amount is truly appreciated!
Share if you feel called to and have a blessed week! ❤️
4/2/18 Final days for support: As many you know that I have been struggling with my health for the last 2 years, but many may not realize my health has been a struggle for the past 6 years. A short version can be described as: 2012 we faced a cancer scare while we were trying to get pregnant, something that we have to keep in eye on for changes. We were ecstatic when I did get pregnant, and then we realized it was twins and our lives changed even more.
Since we were having twins combined with me not being a spring chicken, we were put through a lot of extra testing throughout the pregnancy. At about the four-month mark, I began to start having pelvic and back pain, which continued to get worse throughout the pregnancy. I remember my co-worker talking about getting me a stuff parrot for my shoulder as he said I was walking like a pirate. The last month of pregnancy it was difficult for me to get around, I was put on bed rest after a week in the hospital, and I was seeking chiropractic treatment multiple times a week from my amazing chiropractor Dr Jaime, who I still see regularly today.
The toughest part about being pregnant is that not much can be done medically for the mother. The last four days I wasn’t able to do anything without support from my amazing wife Lindsay, and I lived in our recliner that weekend. Thankfully the babies were doing great and they were delivered naturally at 35.5 weeks both of them over 5lbs. They spent no time in NICU, and came home with us on the 3rd day in late August 2013.
I was glad they were here healthy and with having twins with entered the first year of survival with their grueling play, eat and sleep cycle. Eight weeks after delivery I started physical therapy as my back, hip, and pelvis continued to be extremely painful. I pushed through the exercises, but my pain only increased. In early Dec ’13, the therapy was making me hurt so bad that I could barely walk afterwards. Finally I was able to convince the doctors to do an MRI, and in mid December that MRI showed a hip bursitis, SI Joint deterioration, a torn labrum and a broken pelvis.
Yes I had been walking around for at least 4 months with a broken pelvis, we are not sure if the break occurred prior to or during delivery, but it was nice to hear that my pain was justified. At that point I was put on minimal walking and all physical therapy was postponed for 6 months as we let the pelvis break heal. We again tried a couple versions of physical therapy, and again it only made the pain worse. Since then we have been doing several cortisone-steroids shots to help with the pain, these only last a few weeks at a time, but a few weeks of some relief is better than none.
We have moved on to know that I am going to require 1 if not 2 surgeries to really repair my hip as we tried almost all other options. I live with this chronic pain for almost the last 5 years, and it affects my ability to do certain activities. I can not sit on the floor and play with the kids, as it is difficult for me to get up off the floor, and the external rotation on my torn labrum makes the pain worse for days after. We know that I will need the surgery and the full recovery time is about 1 year, and then we will have to see if a second surgery will also be required, and this one also has 1 year recovery time. Both will require a ton of physical therapy and learning how to walk again.
While continuing to try to get my body to heal in February of 2016, I was dealing with a sinus infection that would not fully go away and lead into bronchitis and then walking pneumonia. My family doctor at the time had me progress through 2 rounds of antibiotics, and then when it moved to walking pneumonia she had me go on Levaquin. After the first dose on March 3th I felt very motion sick, like I was standing on an overpass with the cars making the bridge move. I took a 2nd dose at 4pm on 3/4/16 and my life hasn’t been the same. Within an hour, I developed a tremor in my right hand, and my body continued to get worse with tremors throughout the next few days. I was pulled off the Levaquin after the 2nd dosage and told this reaction would wear off.
I had inventory at my store on March 8th, and the tremors were so bad that the entire right side of my body was shaking and I couldn’t scan items for inventory and my signature was unrecognizable on reports. On Monday I went back to my family doctor and she tried to say that I must have Parkinson’s in my family history and that the tremors were from that, and she tried other meds to “help”. I was still sick and the doctors were not going to give me any new antibiotics until the reaction had subsided.
22 months later and I am still dealing with side effects to this day. From 3/2016 to 5/2017, 13 different doctors gave me 61 prescriptions to “heal” my reaction from Levaquin. I have seen over two dozen doctors since March 2016 without much relief. I also developed an intermittent stutter and short-term memory loss. I have some good day and some bad days. In September of 2016, I was admitted to the hospital for four days with pneumonia. My doctor said that I most likely never got over the walking pneumonia when they stopped the antibiotics, and it just hung out and got worse. I also struggle with chest pain, thought to be costochondritis but 16 months later it is still ongoing. My lung volume has also dropped to 70% for unknown reason. I have been scanned head to toe, with and without contrast since March ’16. All the testing has come back “normal” but it isn’t “my normal” and the chronic pain is tiring.
In April ’17 as I continued to stay sick, my body began to shut down in some ways and with all the meds I had been given, my body was in a toxic state, and I ended up taking a 12 week leave to detox and focus on my health. While focusing on my health it became apparent that I am also suffering from PTSD. A few recent issues, combined with all the stress from my medical concerns, resulted in coming to terms with an incident from my past where we ended up on a scene where I almost hit a man standing in the middle of the road, he was screaming for help, so I tried to provide emergency medical attention to a women that had been shot several times. I did the best that I could to provide care until EMTs arrived, but I am 99% sure that I know the moment that she has passed away.
We were on scene for hours with trying to help and then being interviewed by the police. We continued on our travels, struggling with what had just happened. I am glad that we stopped and tried to help the woman, and hopefully giving her family some peace knowing that someone tried to help her and she didn’t die alone.
Several years later, we were tracked down by the FBI, even after moving states away, changed jobs, and given a subpoena to testify as a witness in a federal murder case.
This is a situation that I have never really dealt with and I am working through now. I am affected by these experiences on a daily basis, and I am working through this and everything else that has happened with me medically in the past 6 years.
I continue to struggle with many medical issues, and am now back on 24 pills a day just to function. I don’t know a day that I haven’t had pain in many years.
My medical issues are hampering many treatment options for PTSD, and struggling to breathe and walk everyday add additional stress. I have now been in counseling for 8 months, and we have agreed that I need to do something different to start getting off some of these meds. So I have 2 suggestions from my counselor and my doctor to get a PTSD service dog.
Finding a PTSD dog is difficult if you are not a veteran, or they charge anywhere from $25,000-$40,000 for a dog, with a multiple year waiting list. That is a lot of money, and with all the medical issues we have had the past 4 years, we have maxed out our deductible and total out of pocket each year, totaling $35,000 in medical expenses, which has wiped out our savings as well.
I am not only trying to work through this PTSD, but I am also still trying to get help with Levaquin reaction. Not many doctors are experienced in this area of care, and we are looking to find a doctor who has actual experience with this, and that means we will most likely be making a trip to Florida as they have a couple of toxicity doctors there.
So this is my medical roller coaster story of my medical circus over the past 6 years, and my PTSD story. We are looking for any amount of help people are willing to make. I have been working and researching for several months, and I have found a PTSD dog, and she can be ready for me in about 1-2 months time once we have raised the funds. Thank you for your support and reading my long story.
We will update my story as things progress.
Any amount of donations would be greatly appreciated as we need to be much closer to our goal amount.
I can not express how much healing having the service dog will mean to me and my family, and my overall health. Please help us if you are able. ❤️
7/28 Update: We have found the perfect dog. His name is Grizzly and he is incredible! All we need now is help with the final donations so we can bring him back home.
We did a trial run with Shera and she was good but became very defensive of me, even with our kids and at church so we had to return her. I was devastated for about a month. We prayed and put it in gods hands and at the beginning of this month I did a two week trial with Griz. He is much smaller and very sweet. He is amazing with the kids and our family. He does good with me at work.
Currently he is back with our trainer completing what we hope is his final training and hope he will be done in the next 2 weeks.
I feel a bit lost right now as it was incredible how much better I felt and could more easily function when he was around. If there is anyway you can donate we would be extremely grateful as this has been an incredibly long journey and I’m praying everything gets workout so I can restart recovery with Griz.
Please share if you are called to go so. Have a blessed day!
Medical update: getting Shera for a trial run later this week. Any donations would be greatly appreciated. Have a blessed week!
5/15/18
Today was interesting. I am on vacation for the first time since my leave that ended in mid July ‘17. Since then I have been through a lot as my medical mysteries continue.
I started out the morning by getting the kids off to school, and Lin headed off to urgent care. Payton n I headed off to my Dr appt with my primary. With everything that I’ve been through in the last several years she has been 1 of 2 in the medical field I actually trust. She has listened to me cry through appts n test results. She never rushes you through an appointment and has always been willing to consider and look into whatever recent research I bring to her. But today was my last visit with her, as she is moving to Peds full time. Happy for her, sucks for me, but this also gives us another trusted option for kids care.
We talked through my current needs n concerns n she ordered lots of blood test to see what has changed n to test a few newer things. It was sad to see her go, but I’m thankful for her during some very dark n rough times.
I picked up the twins n brought them home and then our saving grace, my Aunt Debbie came to watch the kids for the afternoon n evening as she does every week. Lin has strep n we kept her hidden in the bedroom so she could just rest.
I headed off the lab and had 7 vials of blood drawn, which is sadly not a record for a single visit, but I was greeted by the front desk lady taking my paperwork and saying “oh wow, you are getting a lot done today”... I replied with a chuckle n said yes ma’am.
Getting my blood taken was an adventure as the lady put a tourniquet on my arm but as she was gathering all the vials, the young lady in the next chair didn’t look well and tells her lab ladies that she has low BP issues, so they promptly put her feet up and her eyes rolled back into her head n she start convulsing. So all 3 lab ladies immediately she to her, n yelling for more help. This event lasted several minutes n then my lab lady looks back to me n said “oh sorry is your arm going to fall off”, I said no n that I understood.
I then drove to Columbus to get a massage at Dublin Family Chiropractor, Eric and Dr Jaime are exactly what I needed this afternoon. I love the care I receive here!!!!
My vacation time was scheduled as it expires the end of the month and we could get coverage for me at my store this week. Originally the plan was just to work around the house with the kids still in school but much seems that it will be spent yet again juggling Dr visits.
Outside of my PTSD, the hardest fight is chronic fatigue. I can drink a energy drink n still lay down n sleep. N if I’m up past 11pm I will stay up until 2-3am without taking anything.
No matter how much sleep I get, I struggle with alarms for at least an hour each morning. Driving back n forth is getting more n more difficult each week. N when I’m asleep it is very difficult to get me to wake up.
I also had a follow up with my meds Dr n we are just tweaking one of the current meds for now. I have been on antibiotics for 3 of the last 4 weeks Because of the infection of my finger. I have been referred to a dermatologist for my finger as it will need to be reconstructed a little bit from the swelling n lancing procedures of the last few weeks. It is getting better but it is still extremely painful.
And we are also looking towards the end of the week to have a trial run with Shera. Long term hope is that Shera will calm things down so that I can start coming off the meds soon.
4/22 update.
We ask for prayers for our family to finally get some medical answers in several areas by the end of the month. We have a couple of Dr visits this week that are critical for us to move to I another treatment path.
I also am fighting an infection in 2 of my fingers that the Drs can’t fully identify. It is 1 finger on each hand, making doing things a challenge. I’m grateful that Lin has been around to help tie my shoes in the morning. My 1 finger is really bad, and at the 2nd Dr visit this week they choose to lance it twice, which only made it twice as painful. I’m also wearing a finger guard to try to protect it as much as possible.
Larger concern is that the infection wasn’t responding to the 1st antibiotic I was given on Monday, plus the topical meds, so they added a 2nd antibiotic that is 500mg 4x a day. So we have to watch how this might play out this week.
This is course of meds is adding 6 more pills to my cocktail n I’m concerned with how many different meds that they are prescribing and how much pain I’m in, not to mention if they will be any long term problems from these meds.
Good news is that I finally get an appointment at the pain clinic on the 30th.
These last couple of week have been extremely challenging for our family medically and emotionally. And we have some pivotal decisions to make this week as we advocate for our family for what we need and not allow Drs to push us towards paths that do not sit right with us.
We have just a little more than week left in the month and we are trying to raise these final funds.
We greatly appreciate all the support from those who have already donated. I am hoping to have another session with Shera this week, and things are setup with work. Any amount is truly appreciated!
Share if you feel called to and have a blessed week! ❤️
4/2/18 Final days for support: As many you know that I have been struggling with my health for the last 2 years, but many may not realize my health has been a struggle for the past 6 years. A short version can be described as: 2012 we faced a cancer scare while we were trying to get pregnant, something that we have to keep in eye on for changes. We were ecstatic when I did get pregnant, and then we realized it was twins and our lives changed even more.
Since we were having twins combined with me not being a spring chicken, we were put through a lot of extra testing throughout the pregnancy. At about the four-month mark, I began to start having pelvic and back pain, which continued to get worse throughout the pregnancy. I remember my co-worker talking about getting me a stuff parrot for my shoulder as he said I was walking like a pirate. The last month of pregnancy it was difficult for me to get around, I was put on bed rest after a week in the hospital, and I was seeking chiropractic treatment multiple times a week from my amazing chiropractor Dr Jaime, who I still see regularly today.
The toughest part about being pregnant is that not much can be done medically for the mother. The last four days I wasn’t able to do anything without support from my amazing wife Lindsay, and I lived in our recliner that weekend. Thankfully the babies were doing great and they were delivered naturally at 35.5 weeks both of them over 5lbs. They spent no time in NICU, and came home with us on the 3rd day in late August 2013.
I was glad they were here healthy and with having twins with entered the first year of survival with their grueling play, eat and sleep cycle. Eight weeks after delivery I started physical therapy as my back, hip, and pelvis continued to be extremely painful. I pushed through the exercises, but my pain only increased. In early Dec ’13, the therapy was making me hurt so bad that I could barely walk afterwards. Finally I was able to convince the doctors to do an MRI, and in mid December that MRI showed a hip bursitis, SI Joint deterioration, a torn labrum and a broken pelvis.
Yes I had been walking around for at least 4 months with a broken pelvis, we are not sure if the break occurred prior to or during delivery, but it was nice to hear that my pain was justified. At that point I was put on minimal walking and all physical therapy was postponed for 6 months as we let the pelvis break heal. We again tried a couple versions of physical therapy, and again it only made the pain worse. Since then we have been doing several cortisone-steroids shots to help with the pain, these only last a few weeks at a time, but a few weeks of some relief is better than none.
We have moved on to know that I am going to require 1 if not 2 surgeries to really repair my hip as we tried almost all other options. I live with this chronic pain for almost the last 5 years, and it affects my ability to do certain activities. I can not sit on the floor and play with the kids, as it is difficult for me to get up off the floor, and the external rotation on my torn labrum makes the pain worse for days after. We know that I will need the surgery and the full recovery time is about 1 year, and then we will have to see if a second surgery will also be required, and this one also has 1 year recovery time. Both will require a ton of physical therapy and learning how to walk again.
While continuing to try to get my body to heal in February of 2016, I was dealing with a sinus infection that would not fully go away and lead into bronchitis and then walking pneumonia. My family doctor at the time had me progress through 2 rounds of antibiotics, and then when it moved to walking pneumonia she had me go on Levaquin. After the first dose on March 3th I felt very motion sick, like I was standing on an overpass with the cars making the bridge move. I took a 2nd dose at 4pm on 3/4/16 and my life hasn’t been the same. Within an hour, I developed a tremor in my right hand, and my body continued to get worse with tremors throughout the next few days. I was pulled off the Levaquin after the 2nd dosage and told this reaction would wear off.
I had inventory at my store on March 8th, and the tremors were so bad that the entire right side of my body was shaking and I couldn’t scan items for inventory and my signature was unrecognizable on reports. On Monday I went back to my family doctor and she tried to say that I must have Parkinson’s in my family history and that the tremors were from that, and she tried other meds to “help”. I was still sick and the doctors were not going to give me any new antibiotics until the reaction had subsided.
22 months later and I am still dealing with side effects to this day. From 3/2016 to 5/2017, 13 different doctors gave me 61 prescriptions to “heal” my reaction from Levaquin. I have seen over two dozen doctors since March 2016 without much relief. I also developed an intermittent stutter and short-term memory loss. I have some good day and some bad days. In September of 2016, I was admitted to the hospital for four days with pneumonia. My doctor said that I most likely never got over the walking pneumonia when they stopped the antibiotics, and it just hung out and got worse. I also struggle with chest pain, thought to be costochondritis but 16 months later it is still ongoing. My lung volume has also dropped to 70% for unknown reason. I have been scanned head to toe, with and without contrast since March ’16. All the testing has come back “normal” but it isn’t “my normal” and the chronic pain is tiring.
In April ’17 as I continued to stay sick, my body began to shut down in some ways and with all the meds I had been given, my body was in a toxic state, and I ended up taking a 12 week leave to detox and focus on my health. While focusing on my health it became apparent that I am also suffering from PTSD. A few recent issues, combined with all the stress from my medical concerns, resulted in coming to terms with an incident from my past where we ended up on a scene where I almost hit a man standing in the middle of the road, he was screaming for help, so I tried to provide emergency medical attention to a women that had been shot several times. I did the best that I could to provide care until EMTs arrived, but I am 99% sure that I know the moment that she has passed away.
We were on scene for hours with trying to help and then being interviewed by the police. We continued on our travels, struggling with what had just happened. I am glad that we stopped and tried to help the woman, and hopefully giving her family some peace knowing that someone tried to help her and she didn’t die alone.
Several years later, we were tracked down by the FBI, even after moving states away, changed jobs, and given a subpoena to testify as a witness in a federal murder case.
This is a situation that I have never really dealt with and I am working through now. I am affected by these experiences on a daily basis, and I am working through this and everything else that has happened with me medically in the past 6 years.
I continue to struggle with many medical issues, and am now back on 24 pills a day just to function. I don’t know a day that I haven’t had pain in many years.
My medical issues are hampering many treatment options for PTSD, and struggling to breathe and walk everyday add additional stress. I have now been in counseling for 8 months, and we have agreed that I need to do something different to start getting off some of these meds. So I have 2 suggestions from my counselor and my doctor to get a PTSD service dog.
Finding a PTSD dog is difficult if you are not a veteran, or they charge anywhere from $25,000-$40,000 for a dog, with a multiple year waiting list. That is a lot of money, and with all the medical issues we have had the past 4 years, we have maxed out our deductible and total out of pocket each year, totaling $35,000 in medical expenses, which has wiped out our savings as well.
I am not only trying to work through this PTSD, but I am also still trying to get help with Levaquin reaction. Not many doctors are experienced in this area of care, and we are looking to find a doctor who has actual experience with this, and that means we will most likely be making a trip to Florida as they have a couple of toxicity doctors there.
So this is my medical roller coaster story of my medical circus over the past 6 years, and my PTSD story. We are looking for any amount of help people are willing to make. I have been working and researching for several months, and I have found a PTSD dog, and she can be ready for me in about 1-2 months time once we have raised the funds. Thank you for your support and reading my long story.
We will update my story as things progress.
Organizer
Lisa Robinson
Organizer
Bellefontaine, OH
