Please help Kaylee get a service dog

We all know these last couple of years have been rough for all of us, and for Kaylee, especially. In March Kaylee started to get dizzy, all the time. She started randomly passing out. Her first incident was on our road during a practice run. She was unconscious for 5-10 mins and then unable to move for 30 mins afterwards. It happened at cross country practice, a few times. She had to quit the team for her safety. Then the episodes started happening at school. After a few of these her fainting turned into full blown Grand Mal seizures. She was terrified. Something was wrong and no one could figure it out. We had over 10 ambulance rides in 2 months. We had been begging for help and we kept getting sent home. At a Dr apt she went into a seizure. It lasted over 2 hours when she stopped breathing. I never thought I’d have to do CPR on my own kid. Thank goodness the EMTs showed up before it came to that. At the ER they took blood work, amongst a handful of other tests. They discovered that her thyroid was out of wack so they transferred us to Doernbechers Children’s Hospital. It was the best thing that could of happened. We had been begging for help for 2 months and kept getting sent away due to the fact that the hospitals here didn’t know how to help. It took Kaylee refusing to leave the ER and threatening to take her own life before anyone would listen. At Doernbechers they found out Kaylee has a mass on her pituitary gland that has caused adrenal insufficiency and hypothyroidism. She has also been diagnosed with NES (non epileptic seizures), they are seizures that are brought on by stress. Some days she seizes for over 8 hours. These two diagnosis’s just happened to be the perfect storm due to the fact that adrenal deficiency causes an unmanageable amount of stress on the body. Kaylee is emotionally and physically exhausted. She is currently at an inpatient facility in Portland getting the help she needs to climb this mountain. One thing her health care team believes would help her tremendously when she is able to make her transition home is a service dog. Kaylee will live with these conditions forever and the dog will be able to help Kaylee through her episodes (seizures)with body pressure, get help if she needs it and bring her meds if she is alone and passes out. The Service Dog will be able to provide her support and comfort. If anyone has ever researched this, they know how expensive they are. Our health insurance case manager is working day and night to get a flex fund approved for some of the costs but it won’t be enough. We have found a place in Spokane Washington who can get Kaylee a service dog for 30,000.00. I know it’s a lot. If we aren’t able to get the full cost, we would take what she does get and adopt a well mannered pup and pay for service training with the funds. Which is also pretty spendy. This is something that could change Kaylees quality of life. She could have a little bit of freedom. Be able to go places and know she will be ok if god forbid something would happen. If you are in any position to help, even a dollar, we would forever be grateful. If not, please…just share. I really hope we can reach our goal and be able to do this for Kaylee. We want her to have the best life we can provide her.

Kaylee asked me to tell her story. She is not ashamed. She knows how strong she is for having the courage to ask for help. One thing Kaylee wants to get out of all of this is to tell people it’s ok! It’s ok to ask for help. And if no one listens…you keep on asking until you get it, because EVERYONE deserves to be happy. Mental health is a real thing and it happens to real people.

thank you for taking your time to read and share. Kaylee really thanks everyone for all the well wishes. She WILL climb this mountain.