Mia & Kharmah

Mia

Mia is 28 years old and spent over 13 years working in customer service/communications & money handling/management before becoming disabled over 4 years ago. Following her dreams, she started studying in the medical field. During the course of Mia following her dreams, she ended up needing numerous surgeries, and now has over 8 medical diagnosis and many others are still unexplained.

Mia’s more serious conditions cause seizures, inconsistencies with CSF which causes severe headaches & migraines. swelling of the optic nerves causing vision loss, blurred vision, double vision, partial vision loss and/or even permanent loss of vision fields. She also struggles with extreme nausea, vertigo, photosensitivity, back pain, confusion, & memory loss on a daily basis as well.

 Mia battles with infertility, depression & ovarian cysts, excessive bleeding/dysmenorrhea, along with hair loss, joint swelling & pain, Raynaud’s Phenomenon, Tinnitus, eye swelling, night terrors, insomnia, hallucinations, and anxiety. She regularly has intestinal cramping, fatigue, chest pain, neck pain, hot and cold flashes, change of colors in hands and feet & numbness and tingling after certain movement is not uncommon.  Numerous LP’s between her L4-L5 to try and keep her CSF pressure under control has caused a bulging disc in that lumbar area. Shortly after, a cyst was found in her neck pushing on her nerves which is causing more frequent numbness and tingling in Mia’s hands, arms, feet, and legs. She also has issues with ringing in my ears, fainting, black outs, dizzy spells, brain fog, uncontrollable shaking without reason, extreme exhaustion (after light to moderate activity), comprehension, and sometimes word finding.

 A word from Mia –

Although I have numerous issues I still try and find time to contribute to my community in hopes that someday I will get enough help from my Service animal to go back to school and help other people with similar medical conditions like myself. Until that time comes, and probably long after, I will continue to help others and my community as I am currently a Court Appointed Supervised Facilitator. While I cannot dedicate a lot of time now because I need help with everyday tasks I soon hope to be able to volunteer more time soon and go back to school with the help of my trained service animal.