Help fund Tourette Syndrome Service Dog

UPDATE: After recalculating expected costs and realizing we overestimated several of the expenses, as well as finding deals for travel expenses after a lot of research, we are reducing the fundraising goal from 22000 to 13600! Thank you so much to everyone who donated, I am overwhelmed by the amount of love and support I have received these past weeks.

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Hello! My name is Paul, and I have Tourette’s syndrome, a chronic brain disorder that makes me do involuntary movements and sounds called tics. Although I've had tics most of my life, they weren't severe or very noticeable during my childhood and teenage years. Only within the past few years have they quickly become intense, invasive and, at times, frightening, after I was diagnosed three summers ago.

 

Now that I will be moving out to pursue my Ph.D. in a different province or country, I will need the help of a new friend during this journey. I will be getting a service dog! The fantastic team at Glad Wags Service Dogs will be training a dog specifically to help me manage my more severe bouts of tics, as well as offer protection in public.

 

Soon after my diagnosis, the occasional sniffling and throat clearing tics of my childhood suddenly shifted to head shaking, chest-pounding, and periodic paralysis tics that sometimes occur in more severe cases of Tourettes, to name a few. Every month I would develop new tics to replace older ones.

 

Until recently, with the help of therapy, medication and the constant support of my loved ones, I could manage this new disorder relatively well. I could safely go out, study, and live a normal life without much worry.

 

But within the past couple of months, my tics have increased yet again in severity. I started getting seizure-like fits of tics that could last two to four hours, called tic attacks, where I would lose control of my body while remaining conscious. All my tics would want to come out at the same time, and I wouldn’t be able to stand, walk, and often see or speak. Paralysis tics would leave me lying on the ground, and during these attacks, I would have to depend on the help of my family, friends or roommates to keep me safe. During my longer ones, I required hospitalization to help calm down my body a couple of times.

 

Managing these tic attacks is where my service dog will come in. Yoshi, a beautiful golden retriever, will be trained on-site in Oklahoma for six months, where I will come four times to be a part of the training, starting this June. Afterward, Yoshi will be coming back with me and we'll do guided training for the next six months, learning together and about each other.

 

Although Glad Wags' service dog training expense is exceptionally affordable compared to many other sources, it is still a heavy financial toll. The funds raised from this campaign will help cover Yoshi's training and travel and insurance expenses. The current funding goal is an estimation, and we might update the amount once we have more travel information. Your donation would be an immense help, no matter the amount, as well as sharing this post.

 

I'm including two videos in this story. One showcases how severe my Tourettes can be, and another shows just how helpful a service dog can be for someone during a tic attack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for listening to my story!