Please help save Lilly's life

Hi, my name is Jeff Carlson. I've been the proud Dad of Lilly Carlson (Lilly Beans) for the past seven years. I believe fate brought us together in 2017 when I somehow found myself at the Metro Animal Control Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Lilly was days away from being euthanized. She was skin and bones, covered in dirt, and had two ear infections. She had been terribly abused, abandoned, and there were stickers on her enclosure stating she had special needs because she was deaf. Lilly was only a year old. She had been at the animal shelter for over four weeks and I knew because of her breed and the way she looked and because she was deaf that her chances of adoption were very small. I knew there was no way I could give her the life she deserved as I lived alone and worked ten hour shifts four days a week at a call center.

I had no intentions of adopting a dog that day. I just went there to pet puppies. I truly believe that there were forces at work that brought us together and I just didn't realize it. I had taken a photo of Lilly that day that I looked back on where she was behind bars and smiling so hard at me that her eyes were shut. I could see the scars on her head. At that moment, I realized two things. Lilly won't be alive much longer if I don't do something and that if this little girl could smile like that after whatever hell she had been through, then I could learn something from her. I was going through my own hell at that time of my life.

Still on the fence about adopting given my circumstances, I decided to visit her again. When I was taken to a meet and greet room with her, Lilly went completely submissive on my lap and looked at me with those big beautiful eyes and I remember saying out loud, "Nope. That's not going to work on me. I know what you're doing. I don't know how I can take care of you." In that room, there was a large window where the staff could monitor us and I noticed an older woman standing expressionless with her hand firmly on the window. I pretended not to notice her and continued interacting with Lilly.

Later, I was talking to the staff at the animal shelter who were going over the details of what I would need to do to adopt her when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and it was the woman from the window and she asked me, "Are you going to adopt her?" Annoyed at being pressured to make such a huge commitment I replied, "I don't know yet." The woman grabbed my hands and looked into my eyes and said, "Well, I just want you to know that if you adopt that little girl, she'll be the best dog you'll ever have."

Uncomfortable and feeling pressured, I turned back to the staff member I was talking to and pretended she was not there. I was not sure about making this commitment due to my circumstances. Knowing she was still standing right behind me and feeling stressed out that a stranger was trying to get me to adopt, I was going to politely let her know that I can make up my own mind. When I turned around, the woman had vanished. There was only one door out of the lobby and she was nowhere to be found. She simply vanished. The person I was with that day said, "That was an angel. You just met an angel." It cost me $4 dollars to adopt Lilly that day. I never changed her name.

I couldn't leave Lilly there like that knowing they were going to put her down. I didn't know what I was going to do with her, I just knew I had to get her out of there. I had no idea how my life would drastically change after making that decision. The universe smiled on me the day I adopted Lilly. It wasn't long before I landed the best job of my life which allowed me to work from home and be with her ending all concerns I had about leaving her home alone. She gave me the strength to end a toxic relationship I had lost myself in and became a vessel for all of the love I still had to give. She is the reason I was able to look in the mirror and finally see myself again. Over the past seven years, she has given me that love back tenfold. Due to my anxiety disorder after suffering severe trauma, my therapist prescribed her to me as an emotional support animal. She was no longer a pet but a medical tool and she's the very definition of that, both to me and everyone she meets.

Lilly is barely 8 years old and I believe she still has a lot of life and love to give in this world both to me and everyone she meets. I have spent the last 7 years meticulously taking care of my little girl from her eyeballs to her toenails. Lilly blossomed into one the most beautiful creatures on this planet. I had no idea how beautiful she would become. I am the luckiest person alive to have even spent a moment with her, but I do not feel it is her time to go, yet.

On October 30, 2023, Lilly had a grand mal seizure while I was giving her a bath which was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced. I got in the bathtub with her and held her while she started violently convulsing. I had no idea what was happening but I knew this could be my last moment with her so I held her tight. It wasn't long before I decided no, it's not going to end this way. Not without me doing everything I possibly can to save her life.

I carefully took my 70 pound baby covered in soap down two flights of stairs in the pouring rain leaving my apartment door wide open so I could take her to her vet who was closing soon. I had to set her down twice both to open my door and to get her into my friend's car I had borrowed since my Kia Forte had been stolen. She continued having convulsions in the backseat. That seizure lasted over six minutes. It was the scariest time of my life.

Halfway to her vet (which is only a few miles away), I could hear her shake the water off her back. I looked behind me and Lilly had made it through the seizure and was alert. I knew her vet was closing soon and I knew I needed to get her prescription peroxide based shampoo off of her right away as it could harm her skin. I drove her back home and did just that.

As she was drying off, she had another seizure. I have kept a seizure diary documenting every seizure she's had since October 30. She has had multiple visits to an expensive animal hospital called Blue Pearl. No one knew exactly what was causing the seizures without an MRI. She was given Phenobarbital which helped stop her seizures for about a month. I thought she had epilepsy. We all did.

Lilly started having more seizures and was given Keppra to help control them. That worked for a while. Then she started having cluster seizures and had to spend another night at the hospital where they added more Keppra. When she started having focal seizures, I had had enough. I was not okay with giving Lilly 8 pills a day not knowing what I was treating.

I made the decision to take her to a neurologist to get an MRI. The first neurologist I took her to at BluePearl in Franklin, TN, said she was very worried about Lilly because she "favored to the left" when she walked and that she thought it was a brain tumor. I refused to believe this. I walk with Lilly every day and I never noticed this. I chose to take her to a different neurologist at Nashville Veterinary Specialists who performed the neurological exam, noticed the same thing, and proceeded to do the MRI. I got down on my knees and put my face on a public bathroom floor and prayed. Not my Lilly. Not a brain tumor.

I was taken to a small room where I was given the worst news of my life. Lilly has a brain tumor and they suspected it to be a glioma. She was given a grim yet generous prognosis of 4-6 months to live. I never knew I could soak hard denim from my waist to my knees with tears but I did that day. I've never cried like that before. I've cried every day since. In the shower. On the kitchen floor. Everywhere I go.

After researching for many hours, Lilly's only hope for survival beyond her grim diagnosis of 4-6 months is a radiation treatment she could potentially receive in Jacksonville, FL, called stereotactic radiation. I spoke with an oncologist there (Dr Holmes) at PetCure Oncology who, after reviewing Lilly's MRI, has informed me that Lilly is a candidate..

This type of radiation is unique in that it attacks the brain tumor specifically while sparing her otherwise healthy brain tissue with zero to minimal side effects (less than 5%) Though it is not a cure, the statistics show Lilly could easily live for another 2 years, at least, by dramatically shrinking the tumor and returning Lilly back to her healthy quality of life.

Lilly has been a miracle girl from the day I rescued her. She has defeated so many odds that have been stacked against her from being horribly abused, abandoned, and deaf and being days away from being euthanized to becoming the most beautiful and well behaved soul mate I could ever imagine. She's not even 8 years old. Lilly loves people. Lilly loves life. She saved my life. It's my turn to save hers again by trusting the science and statistics behind this procedure and giving her the best shot at life she can get.

I'm reaching out for help for the first time in my life. Unfortunately, the estimate I received for this procedure (which would only be three painless sessions each lasting fifteen minutes) is $14,000 on the high end and $12,000 on the low end. I have already spent over $10,000 in the past eight months between overnight hospital stays due to cluster seizures, getting indolent boxer ulcers removed out of each one of her eyes seven months apart, and a very expensive MRI which by itself was $4,600. I've spoken with neurologists, radiologists, oncologists, and veterinarians and though costly, it is her only hope for survival beyond her prognosis. I have nearly maxed out my CareCredit card.

I am setting a GoFundMe account up in the hopes that people will help me fight this tumor and give Lilly her best last years of her life. We still have adventures to go on.

I'm hoping you will find it in your heart to help me help her and together we can give Lilly her best shot. I have never set up a GoFundMe account before and after writing this, I will find a way to attach her bill estimate in so you can review it and anyone is more than welcome to contact PetCure Oncology in Jacksonville where they are waiting for Lilly.

All donations will be refunded if for some reason I am not able to raise enough funds with donations and the money I have left. I will keep you informed every step of the way as I work towards my goal and plan to create YouTube videos tracking the entire experience if we can make it to Jacksonville. I will show receipts and encourage anyone to contact PetCure Oncology in Jacksonville, FL, to verify everything. GoFundMe will not allow me to post their phone number but they can easily be found with a Google search.

Also, for anyone not comfortable with GoFundMe, here is a direct link to my PayPal account.

https://paypal.me/jeffandlilly?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US

Thank you with all the love in my heart,

Jeff and Lilly Carlson