Trying to get a Tourette’s service dog

Hi, I’m Rya Burke (year 14). Last November my world shook. I had always had little tics that I never noticed, severe shivers is what I always referred to them as. Soon though, they changed. One day at school it became unbearable. Uncontrolled sounds and words, along with movements and head jerks. It was frustrating as people kept telling me to stop, but I just couldn’t. As the weeks went on my now ‘tic’s got worse. They moved to full body and muscle spasms, I would hit myself and bang my head on things. On thanksgiving I had my first non-epileptic seizure. Even these progressed as months went by. Several EEG’s, blood tests, and MRI’s followed. My whole summer spent in and out of hospitals. My official diagnosis is Functional Neurological disorder and there is not really a treatment besides it will hopefully get better with time. It has been very frustrating not getting what we feel like are real answers or solutions. All of this made school, and sports really hard, and going out with friends nearly impossible. Desperate we kept searching for solutions. I am on 4 anxiety meds, 2 depression meds, a tic and Tourette’s medication, and a seizure one. Still nothing seemed to help much. I felt so alone. This wasn’t normal, and I hadn’t heard of anyone with the same thing as I had. We almost gave up when a close friend messaged us one morning and sent us to the Glad Wags site. People, with almost the same thing that I had. I was so relieved to know I wasn’t the only one, and they had all gotten a Tourette’s service dog from this place. They said it changed their lives for the better and almost got rid of their tics and even their seizures! That took weight off my chest knowing that maybe I could live a little bit more normally. The stars all seemed to align as everything fit and our application got accepted! Unfortunately we don’t have the ability to just outright pay for the dog. The cost all together is around $16,000.That is for the cost of the dog ($9,800), 4 trips to Tulsa, OK for training (at least $1,200 each), the new specialized food (more expensive), vet, and grooming. The first down payment we have to put down is around $4,900 to be matched with a dog and start training; if we don’t put it down soon we will lose our spot and we will have to wait more than a year to try again. Please, this dog should help make life just a little bit more livable and I don’t want this to be a financial burden on my family. 

Thank you for listening to my story.