Seizure Assistance Dog for Aria

About this campaign

We need to sell about 800 T-shirts to reach our goal of $16,000!

Epilepsy is the least funded, least researched, and least understood neurological disorder, yet it plagues the lives of 1 in 26 people.
We've created this booster to help raise funds for a service dog for our daughter, Aria. Aria has seizures every day, even in her sleep, and the frequency of seizures prevents her from being able to attend daycare, and being able to free play and socialize with her peers. I had left my job shortly after Aria's diagnoses, when the daycare she was in was unable to meet her medical requirements. Aria has been through five different anti-epileptic medications, and two brain surgeries, and she still has seizures every day- they’re significantly less in numbers though. Aria also has a field cut to her vision, in the upper left quadrant of both eyes. She’s been receiving vision therapy and occupational motor therapy, and since coming off some of the heavy medicines, she has been doing great at navigating her environment and acknowledging that upper left side of the world. She has the most issues with her vision and depth perception outside, where there’s a lot of glare, and in new environments. Both her vision impairment and seizure disorder are our reasons for wanting to get a service dog for Aria. At home, I've found it difficult juggling Aria’s care and development, tracking seizure activity and possible triggers, and getting housework done. I need to keep a close eye on Aria, her seizures can be every 5-10 minutes, or every hour, it’s unpredictable, and I need to be able to guide her from danger when a seizure occurs. Most days I find myself just watching her, afraid to turn my back, because I don’t know when it’s going to happen, and if she might fall over. Those are the days we have a lot of one on one pretend play, and I can’t say I don’t love it.
A Seizure Assistance Dog can help with all of the this! A seizure assistance dog, through Sherlock Obedience & Assistance Dog Training, is trained in-home to respond to Aria's seizures and alert me, even if I'm n another rm. Thebenefit f in-ho training s that it aclerate the bond bween te handler a the dg, and the dog can even learn to alert to seizures BEFORE they happen. The dog would be trained to walk on her left side, so as to guide her away from obstacles she may not see, like a table to at head level. Aria would receive a service dog who has already gone through obedience training, and has been registered as a service dog. The trainer will come to our home, and work with us in-home, and in public. Having the service dog will free me up a little bit to be abl to compete some work without constantly looking over my shoulder If I ha to runo the athroom, or wash dishes, the dog can alert me to a seizure and guide her from danger until I return, and offer comfort and stability afterwards. As she gets older, the dog will be able to give her more independence and confidence in herself, while providing seizure safety. Aria will always have epilepsy, and always be at risk for seizures, a seizure assistance dog can stay at her side and warn her, and help keep her safe.