04/03/2026
Hey everyone, this is McKinley's story, the one I'm raising money for with the dog photoshoots!
McKinley has spent nearly all five years of her life battling severe medical issues, beginning with a rare condition that causes her body to destroy its own white blood cells. After years of hospital visits, tests, and specialists, things took a terrifying turn when she was found unresponsive on the kitchen floor- —what we now know was a seizure. It turns out she had been having undetected nocturnal and absence seizures for months, leading to a diagnosis of epilepsy. Despite being put on anti-seizure medications, her condition has worsened, with side effects impacting her mood, sleep, and kidneys. Doctors have offered minimal support, scheduling delayed appointments and refusing a referral for a second opinion. Feeling helpless, we took matters into our own hands and submitted a self-referral to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Miraculously, they accepted her within 16 hours and scheduled multiple evaluations which started August 8th. We flew out with hope that they'll uncover answers and create a care plan that gives McKinley a real chance at a better life. Our family, especially her older brothers, have carried so much emotional weight, and we're just praying for strength and healing. McKinley is our "little mountain mover" her resilience is nothing short of miraculous, and we're determined to move mountains for her too. Since being at the Mayo clinic, she has been diagnosed with two forms of epilepsy, focal epilepsy, and generalized epilepsy. Her focal ones are on the left side of her brain and affects the right side of her body. Even on meds she still has them, but not as bad as she would if she wasn’t on meds. She has to be medicated every 12 hours around the clock. As well as regular trips to and from Minnesota for treatment. She also has her heart being monitored due to her FBN1 diagnosis that causes the arteries to her heart to be strained and weakened. She has one heart valve that is already leaking and back flows the blood into her heart where it shouldn’t. Her seizure dog is currently passing all her training marks thus far thankfully, so that’s been a blessing!
