Service Dog Liam

Please help us raise money for a diabetic service dog for our daughter Taylar.  Taylar has juvenile diabetes and wears a continuous blood sugar monitor that alarms when her sugar is going into unsafe ranges, high or low.  The alarm enables her to adjust her insulin to remain in a safe range.  Taylar is also an intensive care unit nurse who hears alarms all day as she cares for her patients.  The combination of these two things results in her no longer being as sensitive to hearing her sugar alarm going off while she’s sleeping.  As her sugar drops at night, she sleeps through the alarm and as her sugar continues to drop, she goes deeper and deeper asleep until she’s unconscious.  Typically Sang is able to hear the alarm as well and wake her up, however, as a nurse who also works nights, she often sleeps during the day to get ready for working nights.  She and Sang are starting their family, expecting little girl Maiya mid-summer.  A few weeks ago, Sang left for work in the morning, knowing Taylar was trying to sleep well for the night shift.  At 6:30pm the next night, she didn’t show up to work.   As her coworkers and Sang worked to reach her by phone, she didn’t answer.  She was finally found after being “down” for 18 hours. Her blood sugar was 15. For those few hours of trying to reach her, finding her, and getting her to the hospital, we weren’t sure that baby Maiya had survived this long stretch of such a low sugar. As Taylar recovered in the hospital, doctors assured us that Maiya’s vitals were stable, and positive thoughts are that Maiya is thriving and will do well coming into the world mid-summer.   It was during that hospitalization that we all agreed that something different had to happen. Despite doctor’s care, sugar monitors and alarms, she continues to have episodes where she drops unsafely during sleep.  With a new baby on the way, we need to have a plan to keep Taylar and baby Maiya safe.   We have been working with a private canine trainer for a diabetic service dog for Taylar.  “Liam”, a 16 month-old Bernadoodle, is undergoing training to respond both to her monitor alarm and her “smell” as her sugar levels approach unsafe levels.  Liam will bark to arouse Taylar, preventing her from becoming unconscious while sleeping.  Liam’s training and handling costs will exceed $10,000, so any help toward this amount will be greatly appreciated.