Seizure Alert
My name is Kortney. I am sixteen years old and a sophomore at High School in Texas. I was eight years old when I started having seizures but I was eleven by the time I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Having epilepsy changes a person’s life more than most people would think. For me, living with this unfortunate condition has been a struggle, not just for me, but for my family also. My dad is a paramedic in a town about twenty miles away from our house and my mom is a nurse. I have two older sisters, but they are both graduated from high school and are in college in Texas, a city about eighty miles from where I live. My mom worked in a nursing home up until my epilepsy started getting worse, then, she quit her job to stay home with me. Therefore, my dad was forced to work even more than he already was. We live three miles outside of town so my mom drives me to school every morning, goes back at noon to pick me up for lunch, and then returns once more to pick me up from school to come home. If, on a rare occasion my mom and dad are both gone, I have a grandmother and a great-grandmother that don’t live far away. I am never left alone due to the fear of having a seizure. School activities are also a battle. I attend a small school of about 120 kids k-12; therefore, there is not many options on sports. I participate in basketball and tennis. My other undertakings would include National Honor Society and One Act Play. Once again, there is always a chance of me having a seizure, so I make sure and stay close to the people that would know what to do in that type of situation. When my parents first mentioned to me the idea of having a seizure alert dog, I was thrilled. We were all flabbergasted that it took us so long to even think about it. My mother and I went right to work and began to find and fill out every application we could find. We were in even more disbelief when, about 2 weeks after we sent in our application to CPL, they called to set up for an interview. About a month later, we were on our way to Pennsylvania for a once in a lifetime opportunity.While there, they informed us that it would be, on average, about 18 months before being matched with a service dog, but I was definately willing to wait. After the interview and being back home for several weeks, all I could hope for was a call from CPL saying I was matched with an amazing dog and I was going to have a better life. Sure enough, about 2 months after returning home, I got a good news call from Pennsylvania. I was to go back in June and be a part of the CPL summer class with my new best friend, CorKey. These days, while waiting for June to come along, I am continuing to go to school and maintain my everyday routine. I am confident in the changes that CorKey will make in my life. I am hopeful that in my junior year of high school, I will feel more comfortable while playing basketball and continuing every other event I will participate in. With CorKey with me all of the time, my mom will be able to go back to work and my family will feel better about leaving me at the house. I will have many different varieties of opportunities and freedom that I never had before. CorKey will be my companion and change my life for the better.
