When you are the handler of a guide dog, or any other service animal for that matter, there is always a fear of getting attacked by another dog on the loose.
This happened to one of my friends. She is blind and uses a Guide Dog to travel and get around. This has always been a great method of travel for a lot of blind people.
My friend was sitting as a bus stop in Los Angeles. I think it was at the Good Sameriton Hospital but I am not exactly certain. She had her guide dog at the bus stop with her and I’m sure the guide dog was doing what it was supposed to. It was probably lying at her feet or sitting calmly beside her.
Then, a Pit Bull comes out of nowhere, with no owner and no leash. The Pit Bull attacked my friends guide dog. She has a little baby about the same age as Isaiah. She was unsure what to do.
She did the only thing she could at the time. She let go of her dogs leash and let her try to defend herself. Meanwhile she stayed close to the stroller with the baby in it so that the dogs would not hurt the baby. She was screaming for help and several people got out of their cars on a pretty busy street.
This had to be so frightening. I would not knkow what to do in this situation. What can you do? A person should never get in the middle of a dog fight because even your own dog will just fight anything that comes near it.
Finally a person kicked the Pit Bull so hard that it lost it’s breath for a little bit. That gave the guide dog a chance to get away.
At that moment the bus pulled up and the dog jumped on and so did my friend. She felt terrible because she had the stroller and her dog was all bloody and it was a crowded bus. But luckily someone on the bus knew of a vet on the route and helped my friend get her dog there safely.
Here is my friend, in a place that is unfamiliar to her, with her guide dog out of commision, and no cane to travel with. This would be such a scary situation for me. Seriously to not be able to know where you are going or travel with the mobility aids that you have come to depend on?
She did get home only because she called her husband and he came and got her and the baby. There is no way to know if her dog will ever work again. This may ruin her as a guide dog because of a fear of being attacked again. If the dog did decide that it doesn’t want to work anymore, who could blame it?
There is no excuse for this kind of thing happening. People need to be informed of the law. A loose dog bothering a service animal would be like someone grabbing the steering wheel of a sighted driver. You just can’t do that, or shouldn’t anyway.
The owner of any dog that attacks a service animal can be fined. But i this situation, there was no help from the police or animal control. This couple just wanted that Pit Bull to be found and off the streets.
My friend is pretty tramatised by the whole thing, and I can see why. She’s probably going to hear the sound those dogs made while fighting in her head for a long time. I just hope and pray that both the handler and the dog can recover from this mentally and the dog recovers physically as well.
The public needs to be aware of the laws protecting disabled people and their service animals. When other citizens don’t take the law seriously and follow the “leash law” this type of disaster happens. Having a guide dog is great. The freedom is fantastic, but there is also always a fear that we’ll get attacked.
Seems like not long ago I was going to the hospital with a strange feeling. I found out I would have a baby that very day.
Isaiah was such a little baby. He was only 5 and a half pounds. I held him in my arms and he was so tiny. The gown they had him in while in the hospital swallowed him. I had to put him in premi clothes, and even fit in newborn clothes for a long time.
Isaiah was an early walker. He didn’t really start talking until later, but he was running by 10 months. He is a very active child. In fact it seems so normal to me that when I took him for a checked up at his pediatrician’s office, and she asked me if we was walking yet, I just looked at her kind of strange. Then I had to stop and remember, most kinds his age are still crawling.
Well today we put together a toddler bed for him. No more Crib for Isaiah. This is a huge step for me. My boy is getting bigger.
Isaiah started climbing out of his crib a few months ago. That is too risky for my comfort. He could fall and break his neck while climbing out. Even if he didn’t climb out every single time, the point is that he could and I do not want him to get hurt.
So as much as I want to keep him in a crib, a toddler bed will be safer. I just can’t believe my little baby is growing up!
Wow, has it ever dropped! I knew it was worse, but not that much worse.
Yesterday I went to the clinic to have another hearing test, and to get my hearing aid readjusted.
My hearing, near the end of 2008, was a mild-moderate hearing loss with an 84% speech recognition. Yesterday, however, the levels indicate a significant drop.
It is now a moderate-moderately severe hearing loss, and I have a 32% speech recognition.
“32!!! 84 to 32? Is there anything I can do about this issue?”
“Nope. It’s just the auditory nerve not processing what the ear hears.”
My audiologist turned up my hearing aid and set it with the current audiogram. However, just because it is louder does not mean I can understand people any better. I have to have people repeat things or rephrase things. I can hear then, but I can not make out what they are saying. It doesn’t make sense to me.
This is what I’ve been telling people all along. I tell them I can hear them talking, but I don’t have a clue what was said. It just sounds like they are mumblijng.
So Since there was such a significant drop, my darling husband called Dr. McElveen’s office himself and said that he wanted an MRI pronto. It’s changed from normal to moderately severe, and they need to know why. It doesn’t necisarily mean that the tumor has grown, but there is no way to be certain without an MRI.
We shall find out today if an MRI can get scheduled very soon so that I can meet Dr. M when he comes to Asheville for his clinic here.
What to do now? I’m confused. I want to be a kid again so I don’t have to make any decisions.
It’s very odd going to the doctor and not really having an idea what is going on. Lost in a world full of people.
Yesterday I went to see the spine neurosurgeon I wrote about in a previous post. He was a very nice man, from what I could tell. My husband did most talking with him and got more of an idea.
The doctor looked at my MRI again and said that there were two tumors he needs to watch very closely. There is a schwannoma and a menegioma at C3 and C4 that he is concerned about.
He asked what problems I had been having and I told him about the slight weakness in my right arm and hand, and also about my fingers getting less sensitive. He asked if I had any pain, and I told him that I had pain off and on in my right shoulder. I went to a family doctor in Arkansas, and he said he thought it was bursitis. Well, C3-C4 can cause bursitis. So it looks like I’ve been dealing with this pain in my shoulder for over a year now not knowing why, and the answer was right there.
The weakness in my arm isn’t really noticeable to other people. I notice it myself, and have to concentrate harder to make it do what I want, but I’m not sure if the weakness that the doctor sees causing him concern.
I asked him if surgery would cause any more damage. I do not want to lose the feeling in my hands and fingers. They are all I have left to read sign language and braille. He said that if anything, my fingers would get better. Surgery to remove these tumors would not do any damage to my quality of life. But he does not see a point in doing surgery just yet until he has to.
I’m a little confused as to why we are waiting and watching. If doing the surgery will not cause me harm, then let’s go right now. I really don’t know why we are waiting to let things get bigger and cause more “symptoms” before taking them out.
I asked him about radiation, and he said that it’s not a choice because they are too close to the spine. I’m confused, I thought people had cyber knife done on their spine often?
For now, we wait. I go back in July. If he sees things getting worse then he’ll do surgery. If not, then we’ll continue to wait and watch.
I had Edward signing to me to let me know what the doctor was saying. I couldn’t understand a single word from anyone. When there was something long to tell me, I wood have Edward type it on the pacmate and I would just read it on the braille display. Tedious, but the doctor was patient with us.
I did not completely understand what was going on and everything the doctor said. But Edward filled me in afterwards and that is how I know all of this information to write in this blog. I plan to call the doctor’s office today and try to get his email address so that I can talk to him myself. We shall ssee if I have any luck.
So what now? The wait and watch game can take several years. If there is a problem, I like it taken care of sooner rather than later.
Sure is great to be back in my own house. I have everyrthing that helps me set up here.
I have my relay on my computer to call places. I couldn’t do that at my parents house. When I say on here that “I called” someone, really mean that I used my relay service to call them. It’s slower, but it works.
Here at my house, I don’t have to communicate with anyone. Only Isaiah and Edward. Isaiah and I don’t only depend on talking. I do talk, so he can learn, but he shows me things in my hands and we have a lot of interaction with touch.
Edward is at work most of the time and now he is beginning to fingerspell a lot more. He and I are going to begin learning more ASL soon, and that will help a lot. Fingerspelling is great, especially when you have no clue what’s going on otherwise, but it does take a long time. If you can just sign the word instead of spelling it out, it’s much faster.
But I like my house. I don’t like thefact of being so far away from my parents, but maybe someday I’ll move back to Arkansas. I don’t know when though. I think I want to go to school here.
I don’t know if massage therapy is going to work out for me anymore. It may still, I’m looking into it, but I am trying to think of other careers I can do as a completely deaf-blind individual. Any ideas?
Hearing is terrible, and I don’t have a braille display hooked up to my computer yet. I want to work on editing my book that I’ve written, but I can’t read with Jaws anymore and it’s going to take me forever to read it in braille. I really hope that my speed picks up soon. I hate reading that slow, nbut at least I can still read.
I wanted to let everyone know that I am back home and doing as well as I can be right now in life. I’ve been thinking about some things and I will write about them in here after I toss them around in my head a little more. Until next time…
