Hello and welcome to my fundraising page for Team Seize the Day! Thanks for looking at my page and here is my experience with epilepsy and how this foundation has personally helped me and others. **cracks knuckles** Hop in for a reading about everything, it may be a long one, but I seriously thank everyone who looks here and considers donating! It really is meaningful.
It's that time of the year again... STOMP! This is a yearly event for The Chelsea Hutchison Foundation to raise money for an amazing foundation that does such wonderful things for those impacted by epilepsy. I'm not going to get too into how horrible this disease can be, but what I will say is that those impacted by epilepsy are on a large spectrum and we all have needs that are necessary to keep the rates of things such as SUDEP down and just live our lives as safely and comfortably as can be. SUDEP is Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. Julie and Doug Hutchison are the founders of this organization that was made after they tragically lost their daughter Chelsea to SUDEP.
The Chelsea Hutchison Foundation is such an amazing foundation that helps people live just a bit more safely and keep the worry of bad things down by not only granting individuals and families epilepsy monitors and service dogs, but also granting trips every year to Disneyland to fill the park with purple and have fun with those around them and build a loving community with amazing friends. I was wonderfully granted one of those trips myself! I can not thank this organization enough for that experience. It was such an amazing time and I made great friendships and memories that will last me my whole lifetime. My memory may be bad at times, but I will never forget that beautiful experience and all that came with it. Thank you!
Here is my personal experience regarding epilepsy... In 2016 I was driving with my daughter, Lily, to martial arts practice and someone cut me off and I ended up rear-ending them. All things considered it wasn't that bad of a wreck, but my airbag did not deploy as it should have so I hit my head on the steering wheel and sustained a TBI. Lily was fine, thankfully, but they were obviously distraught over the wreck. A week later I was driving with my Mom and she saw me kind of "zone out" and almost got into another wreck because that was when I had my first absence seizure. I knew what that was from college and learning about them, so we started the plethora of tests and as I just kept having more and sure enough, my diagnosis was epilepsy. This was all due to that wreck I had a short time prior.
Over the years I have had lots and lots and lots of tests done because my seizures have not gotten better, they got worse. I am now diagnosed as having severe intractable epilepsy, I really don't respond to medications at all. I did find one that helps but I tried at least 12 medications before that to even find one that slightly helps. I still seize a lot though and have hurt myself greatly with them over the years. I have had 2 brain surgeries to try to help my epilepsy and am beginning the journey to map out my brain functions again as we are looking at yet another and more complex brain surgery. It's a scary road to be looking towards, but I trust my doctors and my boyfriend, Jason, and I are looking forward to it. He has been a great caregiver to me and I can not thank him enough!
If you could, it would mean so much to me if you helped contribute anything you can towards this fundraiser as every dollar helps. The money does not go to me, it goes to the Chelsea Hutchison Foundation. In September will be our annual STOMP walk and I would just love to be able to give back to this foundation as its helped me so much. Can't attend the walk but want a t-shirt with an awesome design? You can do that too! Can't attend but would like to donate to this fundraiser? You can do that too! There are lots of ways to help contribute to this event. Donate yourself, share this page with your friends, share in groups on social media... it all helps. And please, please educate yourselves about the risks that come with epilepsy and SUDEP because it's a very real risk that frightens us all every day.
Big thanks go out to Julie and Doug Hutchison for making events like these happen and helping so many people. I am dearly sorry you had to lose the beautiful soul of your daughter Chelsea, but she is smiling down at you every day for what you are doing for the epilepsy community in her name and memory. Thank you, thank you, thank you.