Seizure Alert and ASD Service Dog for Chase

Hello everyone! I know that many of you will already know a bit about our little man and his struggles. At nearly 11 years old, he's both high support needed and non-verbal autistic and epileptic. While we have been working with a neurologist to find the right seizure medication for him, the seizures are still progressing. Originally, he was only having seizures in his sleep, which was easy to handle since he often just kept sleeping and we didn't have to worry about any falls or dangers that can come from having seizures during daily activity. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. He's now having seizures when he's awake, including a scare recently where he fell in the hallway. Many of you may know that he's a bit of an energy ball and loves to run around getting into things and just generally being a monkey. That being said, seizures during his waking hours can be scary, as he could injure himself in a fall or hit his head. Because he's non-verbal, it's difficult to communicate to him the idea that if he feels a seizure coming on, he should sit down. It's not something he really comprehends and that makes it very difficult for us to know if he might be reaching his seizure threshold. After some discussion his neurologist talked to us about getting a dog trained in seizure warnings. These service dogs can help warn of impending seizures as well as help ease him to the ground should he be in danger of falling. (You can learn more about seizure service dogs here if you're interested: Recognition Seizure-Dogs)

The neurologist discussed with us that even with a prescription, service dogs are not covered by our insurance, (they aren't covered by almost any insurance). The training that they require to be able to help seizure victims has a hefty price tag, but it could mean the difference between a safe seizure and a fall that could really hurt him. After much discussion as a family, we've decided to begin the journey to raise the funds for a service dog for our little man. This may be a long journey, it will take time to raise the amount needed, but we are looking at this from many different angles. We will be running our GoFundMe campaign as the main place to donate and receive updates on the process, but we have other things in mind as well, including a list of resources to reach out to help mitigate the costs (there are some non-profits that may award some support, for example), as well as fundraising events. Included in this will be any events that we work for our art table and my sculpting, which you can find at Diverse Dimensions, where all the proceeds will be saved towards this campaign as well.

We know that this may take us some time and we have a long road ahead of us, but we feel that our son's safety and comfort are worth all the effort this process might take. So, please, even if you can't donate, toss us a share and become a part of Chase's journey, we can use all the help we can get!