LIGONIER — Dogs aren’t just a man’s best friend.
They can also be a young girl’s “bestie,” as well.
Eva Shidler was a normal 13-year-old girl. She went to West Noble School Corp. and earned good grades and had friends. Then she had a major tragedy in her life happen.
Her father died in July 2016 from dissected aorta, a genetic condition.
Then, her life would change again forever a few months later.
The diagnosis
Eva, 13 years old at the time, went to her mother and told her she had a horrible migraine.
Her mother, Kellie Shidler, took Eva to the doctor at Goshen Hospital. They sent her home with pain medicine and diagnosed her with viral meningitis in October 2016.
“All they did was a nose swab and other stuff,” Kellie said. “She had a really bad headache, and they told her she had viral meningitis. By the time she was in the hospital, she could not walk.”
She did not feel better, so Eva went to Parkview Regional Medical Center a few weeks later and was admitted for four days.
A doctor performed a lumbar puncture and took four tubes of fluid from her spine for testing. They learned she had an excessive amount of fluid in her spine. Once it was drained, Eva was able to walk again.
This led to more testing, more potential diagnoses and more medications. When it was all said and done, she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), both rare diseases.
“She has had EDS since she was born, but the virus kind of exacerbated all of the symptoms of it, and it causes her a lot of pain,” Kellie said. “There are some days where she has trouble walking, so she has a wheelchair that we push her around in if she needs to.”
According to the Ehlers-Danlos Society, EDS is a group of connective tissue disorders that are generally characterized by joint hypermobility (joints that stretch further than normal), skin hyperextensibility (skin that can stretch more than normal) and tissue fragility. This is similar to what Eva’s father passed away from.
POTS is a condition that affects blood circulation, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Kellie said this is a struggle for Eva’s day-to-day life.
“Her blood pressure drops when she stands up sometimes,” Kellie said. “She will get lightheaded to the point of passing out. When a normal person stands up, their heart rate goes up about 10 beats per minute then it goes back to normal. Her heart rate goes up over 30 beats per minute, and it does not slow back down.”
This causes Eva to have bad migraines and blood will pool in her legs. She takes medication for this and wears compression socks to help with circulation.
Eva has to get an echocardiogram every six months.
The amount of doctors she has seen is more than most see in a lifetime. Just in the past three years, she has seen more than 10 doctors. She will suffer with these conditions the rest of her life.
“At first, they thought this would be something she would grow out of, but it’s not looking like it,” Kellie said. “Right now, we are trying to find the happy medium on how to control it because some of the medicine for the EDS makes the POTS worse and the other way around.”
She is currently going through testing for other conditions she is struggling with as well.
Life now
She is now 15 years old and in ninth grade, but she cannot attend school because her immune system is weakened. Kellie said they tried to give her an immune booster, but it made her sick.
“She gets sick real easy, so we have to be careful,” Kellie said.
She in now dealing with stomach issues. When she eats, it makes her sick. Kellie said that a great deal of people who have this condition end up on a feeding tube. They are doing everything they can to prevent that.
“She has days where she crawls down the hallway to the couch and doesn’t move,” Kellie said. “On those days, she can’t even stand up to walk.”
When she was first diagnosed, she would sleep about 20 hours a day, but that has improved. She wears sunglasses at all times because sometimes the light affects her eyes.
Eva does not like to talk about her illnesses. Her mom mostly spoke for the interview, but she loves to talk about her new best friend.
New best friends
Her main doctor, Dr. Michael Dick, prescribed a service dog for Eva. Remington is a 9-month-old golden retriever.
When Kellie and Eva visited Remington, Eva sat down and he curled into her.
“She looked at me and smiled,” Kellie said. “She said, ‘Mom, he knows. He knows I need him.’ She says Remington is her best friend. She calls him her bestie. She says that he is the best thing that ever happened to her.”
Kellie put a payment down for Remington, but she was contacted later saying that she needed to come pick up her money because an anonymous source paid for him. Remington cost approximately $850.
Eva said Remington makes her more active.
“He make me get up and do stuff, which has been good for all my other stuff,” Eva said, “even though I wasn’t really happy about it at first.”
She takes him on walks as much as she can.
“It’s supposed to be good for me,” Eva said. “Even when I don’t feel good, which is pretty much all the time, I still have to get up and take care of him. He’s my best friend.”
Training a service dog is not easy or cheap. Insurance does not help pay for it. At least, Kellie’s didn’t.
It was suggested to her that she should find a dog she could bond with, then find someone who could train him to her specific needs.
Community outreach
Heath Neidig from Special O.P.S. K-9 Academy in North Webster, is training Remington for his duties. He has graduated from puppy training and knows basic commands. He has also been going to all of Eva’s appointments with her.
Once his training is complete, he will be able to do a few different things to help Eva like warning her before her blood pressure drops so she can lay down and elevate her legs. He will also be able to fetch her medicine bag and bring it to her, bring her water bottles, help her when she needs her wheelchair, pick up items she drops and more.
“We pretty much take him just about everywhere with us,” Kellie said.
Kellie said the two are inseparable.
“Since she has gotten him, she has laughed so much more than she used to,” Kellie said. “He’s been a godsend.”
The training for Remington will cost approximately $8,000. The family only has about $3,000 saved so far.
This is where Kellie and longtime family friend Erin Kilgore hopes the community will help. Since her husband passed away, Kellie and Eva have been living off of survivor benefits. Kellie has not been able to work, as Eva needs around-the-clock help. A GoFundMe account has been created to help raise money for the family.
Kilgore has taken the lead on the fundraising efforts.
“I have a call in to a few people and they have been calling people they know as well,” Kilgore said. “We have had a couple church donations, our Ligonier Lions Club made a donation and we did a GoFundMe page that garners some help but not a lot.”
The two said anything that people can give will be helpful. The link to the GoFundMe page is bit.ly/2ROujKp. Lake City Bank also has an account set up in Kellie and Eva’s name that will take donations.
For any questions about donations, contact Kellie at bhskjs@juno.com or Kilgore at dustfling@gmail.com.
“Every time we’ve needed money, it’s been there,” Kellie said. “We’re hoping that happens again this time around.”
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.