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July 23rd , 2012 . My daughter Kala 

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was born and probably about 3.5 months 

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after she was born , I woke up to her 

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having a seizure in the middle of the 

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night . She was rushed immediately to 

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the emergency room . And that started a 

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roller coaster of 

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hospitalizations for the next several 

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years of her life . 

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And it turned out that she was uh 

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diagnosed with Dravet syndrome , which 

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is severe epilepsy based on um a gene 

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mutation . And she continued to just 

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have seizures at any point . They were 

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very unpredictable and the severity was 

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also very unpredictable . And over the 

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next several years , I developed a 

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strong social support network um just 

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to help me with my mental health so 

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that I could take care of her . So all 

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in all , it really took a community to 

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help my daughter in the medical realm . 

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And it also took a community to help me 

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just deal with having a child with a 

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life threatening illness . So I really 

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want to encourage you . Uh although it 

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might be difficult to , you know , keep 

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reaching out , keep asking for help and 

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just know that um there's people just 

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waiting to help those people are going 

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to step in and they're gonna help you 

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and they're gonna help your family .