We need your help!
Donation protected
Hello Everyone,
Thank you for taking the time to read this. This is very hard for me to do, as I really do not like asking for help.
Our troubles began on April 29,2018. Terry had the first of his two strokes while out with some friends, when he it happened he fell and hit his head (the large bruise next to his eye you can see in the photo was from this). Luckily his friends didn't listen to Terry claiming he was fine and called the ambulance. He was in the ICU less than 24 hours but then he had his second stroke the next day (about 28 hours after the first). We later found out that both of his carotid arteries had spontaneously dissected simultaneously. It is also not common for both to dissect at the same time.
He spent about a month in the hospital and in rehab, where they were very happy with his physical progress, his mental progress was another matter, but we will get to that later. (in an update post)
Once he left the hospital he was able to start going to the gym to build his strength back up. He was very proud of his progress, despite his mental health issues, and the restrictions his own body put on him, he was slowly loosing the weight he had never been able to loose previously, and he was gaining muscle!
And then on April 14,2019
He had his first seizure. Luckily Evie was not home, and did not witness it. Luckily I was home with him when it happened, Luckily I knew what it was as soon as I saw it. I wasn't sure if it was JUST a seizure or a seizure AND a stroke. Understandably, I freaked out. Thankfully he was waking up by the time the ambulance arrived. He kept asking the paramedics who they were and why had I had called them?
We found out that day that it is normal to have a seizure after a stroke, but normally its a few days or weeks afterwards. Not almost a year later, and the longer it takes for it to happen the more likely it is to become epilepsy, not just a one off seizure.
Since then he has had two more large seizures (Evie was present for both of these) that required a trip to the hospital ( on July 20, and August 24) and many smaller ones that did not result in full body convulsions or loss of consciousness.
The one on August 24, was his worst yet. He had a 3-4 minute seizure, then after it stopped before regaining consciousness, he had a second smaller one. Before the paramedics arrived he started having what they told me is called a post trauma crisis, where he was awake but had no idea what what he was doing and had no control over his actions. He was rolling like an alligator, flopping like a fish, shrieking, and screaming. He was even calling out for his cat and his mummy! They had to call out the Cardiomobile and the Fire Dept, because they could not get him calm enough to remove him safely.They had wanted to take him out the window since a stretcher wont fit in our apartment or our elevator, but were unable to because of some external issues out of our control (the Firemen told us it would be a really good idea for us to move, because they may not be able to take him out in a wheel chair in the future, and a stretcher is not a option) From the start of the seizure until the time they could get him safely in the ambulance was over an hour.
He does not remember anything from the time I placed his pills in his mouth when he was still conscious until he was in the ER room, after his blood had been taken and his clothes changed.
The reason we need help?
- Swiss insurance only helps cover a portion of the first ambulance ride each year.
- We are still waiting for him to be approved for the invalid insurance. So right now we are living solely on my pay check.
- We have no more savings and we are still waiting to receive the most recent ambulance bill. With the Cardiomobile we have no idea how much this bill will be.
- We need to either invest in seizure detection wearables(watches or armbands), or a seizure alert dog. Neither of which are currently in our budget.
- We are still trying to find the correct dosage for his medication. This must be done slowly, because if it is increased too quickly it will actually CAUSE a seizure. His body also does not assimilate medications correctly, so we may have to start the process over with a different anti-seizure medication. Until this is sorted he will still have these larger seizures that do require hospitalised observation.
-Even after he has the correct dosage of medication he will most likely still have seizures, just less frequently.
Thank you again for taking the time to read this, We have set our goal to what we believe will be the bare minimum to cover just the last two ambulance rides, one of which we are still waiting for the bill. We appreciate anything you can donate, and will be forever grateful
❤️Danni, Terry, and Evie
Thank you for taking the time to read this. This is very hard for me to do, as I really do not like asking for help.
Our troubles began on April 29,2018. Terry had the first of his two strokes while out with some friends, when he it happened he fell and hit his head (the large bruise next to his eye you can see in the photo was from this). Luckily his friends didn't listen to Terry claiming he was fine and called the ambulance. He was in the ICU less than 24 hours but then he had his second stroke the next day (about 28 hours after the first). We later found out that both of his carotid arteries had spontaneously dissected simultaneously. It is also not common for both to dissect at the same time.
He spent about a month in the hospital and in rehab, where they were very happy with his physical progress, his mental progress was another matter, but we will get to that later. (in an update post)
Once he left the hospital he was able to start going to the gym to build his strength back up. He was very proud of his progress, despite his mental health issues, and the restrictions his own body put on him, he was slowly loosing the weight he had never been able to loose previously, and he was gaining muscle!
And then on April 14,2019
He had his first seizure. Luckily Evie was not home, and did not witness it. Luckily I was home with him when it happened, Luckily I knew what it was as soon as I saw it. I wasn't sure if it was JUST a seizure or a seizure AND a stroke. Understandably, I freaked out. Thankfully he was waking up by the time the ambulance arrived. He kept asking the paramedics who they were and why had I had called them?
We found out that day that it is normal to have a seizure after a stroke, but normally its a few days or weeks afterwards. Not almost a year later, and the longer it takes for it to happen the more likely it is to become epilepsy, not just a one off seizure.
Since then he has had two more large seizures (Evie was present for both of these) that required a trip to the hospital ( on July 20, and August 24) and many smaller ones that did not result in full body convulsions or loss of consciousness.
The one on August 24, was his worst yet. He had a 3-4 minute seizure, then after it stopped before regaining consciousness, he had a second smaller one. Before the paramedics arrived he started having what they told me is called a post trauma crisis, where he was awake but had no idea what what he was doing and had no control over his actions. He was rolling like an alligator, flopping like a fish, shrieking, and screaming. He was even calling out for his cat and his mummy! They had to call out the Cardiomobile and the Fire Dept, because they could not get him calm enough to remove him safely.They had wanted to take him out the window since a stretcher wont fit in our apartment or our elevator, but were unable to because of some external issues out of our control (the Firemen told us it would be a really good idea for us to move, because they may not be able to take him out in a wheel chair in the future, and a stretcher is not a option) From the start of the seizure until the time they could get him safely in the ambulance was over an hour.
He does not remember anything from the time I placed his pills in his mouth when he was still conscious until he was in the ER room, after his blood had been taken and his clothes changed.
The reason we need help?
- Swiss insurance only helps cover a portion of the first ambulance ride each year.
- We are still waiting for him to be approved for the invalid insurance. So right now we are living solely on my pay check.
- We have no more savings and we are still waiting to receive the most recent ambulance bill. With the Cardiomobile we have no idea how much this bill will be.
- We need to either invest in seizure detection wearables(watches or armbands), or a seizure alert dog. Neither of which are currently in our budget.
- We are still trying to find the correct dosage for his medication. This must be done slowly, because if it is increased too quickly it will actually CAUSE a seizure. His body also does not assimilate medications correctly, so we may have to start the process over with a different anti-seizure medication. Until this is sorted he will still have these larger seizures that do require hospitalised observation.
-Even after he has the correct dosage of medication he will most likely still have seizures, just less frequently.
Thank you again for taking the time to read this, We have set our goal to what we believe will be the bare minimum to cover just the last two ambulance rides, one of which we are still waiting for the bill. We appreciate anything you can donate, and will be forever grateful
❤️Danni, Terry, and Evie
Organizer
Danni Sullivan
Organizer
Geneva
