Service Dog and Medical Leave

       

                                                     

               Even though I have spent a year on medical leave, I have been incredibly lucky. This year would have been much harder had I faced it alone, but I didn’t have to. A year ago I first met secret agent puppy. The most nerve-wracking time was flying across country to meet him for the first time. I was so anxious, worried that he wouldn’t like me, worried that his trainers wouldn’t like me. I wanted this to work so badly, because I desperately needed him more than anybody knew.

            I have been fighting with my conditions for the past twenty-three years and it gets tiring. There are days where it would be so easy to give up, and feeling alone while everybody else is living their life just makes the situation worse. Prior to considering a service dog I got sick enough to have to leave nursing school, move back home, drop classes in OT school, and was facing leaving school all together which eventually resulted in my year long medical leave. After many hospital stays and specialized clinics I was told that because of my combination of conditions there was nothing that could be done to improve my life. I was always going to be stuck living at home and would have to leave the house with my mom so that she could help with mobility should something dislocate.

            Even though we had to fly across the country to meet a dog, which may or may not become my service dog it was completely worth it because we had nowhere else to turn and I wanted to give up after loosing all my independence. Little did I know my life was going to majorly change after landing in Illinois for the first time.  We had no idea where we were and all of a sudden a college student that we had never met comes walking towards us with a perfectly behaved yellow lab. It was one of the best moments of my life because it offered that hope that had been taken away from me.

            Well needless to say this yellow lab is now secret agent puppy. I went from being pretty homebound to getting back out in the world. This year alone we have gone to Disneyland, Universal, Hollywood, Seattle, Texas, the California Redwoods, Alcatraz, Chicago, and all over the city. Now instead of staying in my house for a week at a time, I go out every day for most of the day. In January we are also going to be moving in to a dorm making secret agent puppy the first dog to ever live in the dorm and I can’t wait. Without the dog this year would have gone so differently. I definitely would not have had the courage to try and get specialized help for my conditions, nor would I have had the confidence to go out in the world when I am having a bad day which is isolating given my conditions are getting worse not better.

            Even my friends have noticed a difference. I spend a lot more time with them and am a lot happier because with secret agent puppy I know that he will help me when I need it so that I don’t have to constantly ask my friends. While they were always happy to help it is not fun to always feel like a burden, it was usually easier to just stay home. If I were told a year ago that by the end of the year I would be more active than I ever have in the past I would have walked away, but it just goes to show that there is always hope out there.