It all started almost a year ago with a phone call from my sister in law. She happened to be watching Diane Sawyer on ABC World News and saw that the upcoming story was on service dogs being trained for people who faint. She called me, my sister in law... not Diane Sawyer... I put ABC World News on then I called my dad and we all watched it.
Link: Dog Saves Owner From Fainting Could a dogs sense of smell help monitor blood pressure?
Canine Partners for Life has trainers who work with potential cardiac alert dogs. The hope is to detect the drop in BP that happens right before a person becomes symptomatic. They never mention what the young woman in this interview suffers from but it is clearly Orthostatic Intolerance, mostly likely Hypotension since all of the emphasis was on blood pressure and not heart rate.
I called CPL and we spoke about my medical issues and symptoms and they sent an application packet. It took me almost a week to fill out the 8 pages of questions, have friends write reference letters (thanks Dawn and Meredith) and I had to write two essays. I wrote the check for the application fee and printed off 3 photos of my family and I as they requested, and it was in the mail.
CPL reviewed my application and they felt they could train a dog for me. I was accepted to the program but it was far from a done deal though. We had a SKYPE interview to go over more details. Murphys Law, the connection was less than desirable but we were able to finish the conversation. During the interview we talked more about what I like to do, places I like to go, as well as my ability to care for a dog physically, emotionally, as well as financially.
The next step was a letter from my Neurologist, he was more than willing to fill out the paperwork with additional information he thought would be helpful. Then it became official, my name now sits on a wait list at Canine Partners for Life.
Then a bit of anxiety, how different will life be with a service dog, how long will my wait be, do I really need this to improve my quality of life... I am sure someone could use it more than me. Ahhh, that last line, so true. I have a non stop internal battle with really believing this is my situation but that is a whole different post.
Because I have a child with a dog allergy we have to wait longer than the average person on the list, waiting for not only a poodle or poodle mix when they work mostly with retrievers but a poodle or poodle mix with a knack for potential cardiac alert could be years from now.
So far I am almost at one year into my wait. Every six months there is some type of update to do. At my six month mark it was a detailed journal of episodes and I am coming due again for my next assignment. I knew it was too soon but I couldnt help inquiring, the matches for the summer session have already been made.
Some really great news is that as we have sat this last year on the wait list at Canine Partners for Life our family dog has started alerting to my episodes. Now Maggie the Goldendoodle is no official alert dog, she alerts to pizza just as well as an episode. I am pretty sure if pizza was in the same room as me having an episode she wouldnt look twice at me.
When its quiet in the house and she is paying attention to me, and not napping on the couch, she will alert and it gives me the 5 to 10 seconds that can make a difference in getting to a better location. We are working with Maggies training so she can focus her alerts a bit more consistently while we wait for my service dog.
This is our family pet Maggie the Goldendoodle. The way she noses my hand when it starts is what she starts doing before my episodes.
There is still a long wait but it is helpful to have Maggie doing her part now though I do look forward to someday having a dog trained to focus on me, even more so than pizza. I will keep you posted on Maggies training to see if she can fine tune this natural skill as well as our journey to receiving a service dog.
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| training hard |
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