Sicker then a Dog

I am very behind on keeping up with my blogging. I have been sick now for officially six weeks and two days! I have had almost every symptom out there from high fevers, to sore throat, to ear aches. In the six weeks that I have been sick I have probably been to the doctors about eight or nine times, including going to the hospital. I was told I just have a bunch of viruses and one symptom leads to the next. I was told the fevers with the chills were the start of the first virus which led to the sinus being inflammed which led to the sore throat and ear ache from where it was all draining. The ear ache was so bad that I had to go to the emergency room at 10 pm one night to get some stronger medication. The woman doctor looked at me like I was crazy telling her about all my symptoms and showing her the bag of medications I have been given. In that extra-large Ziploc bag were three different antibiotics, prescription eye drops, nose spray and ear drops as well as an inhaler and a steroid inhaler. I was then given a prescription from the doctor for a stronger dose of ibuprofen. With this she said that my ear drum was bulging and that was what was causing the pain. With so many pills and such a sore throat it was extremely hard to swallow the medications. My Dad taught me a trick of how to put them in a banana to get them to go down easier which was a saving grace. Then of course the next symptom kicked in; a nasty cough. I could feel my chest rattling when I was breathing so we went straight to the doctors to see what they could do. My mom says that we have been there so many times that we could be paying for the doctors retirement! This time she gave me a nebulizer which is basically a breathing treatment I have to do every four hours to help open my lungs. She also wanted to get a new round of blood work done and a chest and sinus x-ray. We did all of those and were told to come back in a week so my doctor could check on my lungs. We get a call the day after my tests and she said that my allergy level was very elevated and she needed to see me the following Monday. My Dad takes me in, again, and she gives me a new nose spray and a different inhaler to use and says she needs to see me in two weeks and if I'm not better I will have to go to an allergist. Then the next day the phone rings and on the caller id it read Walnut Creek Pediatrics, so I answered and it was my doctor asking to talk to my Mom. From the office where she picks up the phone I hear, "Acute mono!" As I'm sure you can guess the blood work came back showing that I have a very bad case of mono. After six weeks and about four different doctors seeing me it really makes me wonder how no one caught this. But anyhow, now that we have the diagnosis I just have to rest up and drink a lot of fluids. As my Dad says, "You have to drink a bottle of water every hour," which I do not do. A couple of weeks ago because I was missing so much school from this mysterious virus, my doctor recommended that I start a home-hospital program. It is basically home schooling for a couple of weeks to keep caught up with classes and when you are all better you can go back into school free of make-up work. My teacher is Ms. Deane, she is really nice and has helped me greatly in all my classes. As for my teachers, they seem to be making it hard on her by not giving her the work and tests. It seems though that this weeks the ball really started rolling and I have had a few tests to do and a major amount of homework. One thing that she has done is really helped me map out my senior project. Before she came I was kind of stuck on what to really do besides just looking up information. She suggested that I broaden my topic to trained service dogs in general and then chose a couple of different ones to focus on. I chose to do a spectrum from least trained to most trained service dogs. The first in a dogs for autism, those dogs are not necessarily very trained. They stay with the children and are a friend to them and help them to be more social. The next one is courthouse dogs, they have to be trained to just sit there and be very still so they do not make a big disruption. After that comes dogs for veterans, they are trained for both the physical and mental side affects of being in the war. Some are more trained then others depending on who their owners are and their disabilities. The next are dogs for the deaf. They are trained for people who can't hear and help them with everyday life activities such as driving, cooking and even in their jobs. Following that comes guide dogs. These dogs are highly trained for the blind because they are the owners eyes. And directly after that are diabetes and seizure dogs. These dogs alert the person if their blood sugar is getting low and they pump insulin into their bodies. As for the seizures, they cannot prevent them but they can get the person into a save place and have a card that they can bring by mouth to someone that says something like, "Do not touch this person, they are having a seizure, call 911." Those are all the dogs that I am choosing to research. I have sent out many interviews through the email because a lot of these training facilities are out of state. I went to interview a Martinez County district attorney earlier last week about dogs used in court. She had great information for me dealing with courthouse dogs as well as how her husband's family has trained two guide dogs. I am going to the Canine Companions for Independence facility this coming Wednesday. There they train dogs for many different situations, but I am using them for the dogs for veterans program. They are located in Santa Rosa so it is a little bit of a hike but I am very interested in their program. Following that the next weekend I think I am going to the Guide Dogs facility. They have tours that bring you around and show you how they train the dogs. I am also going to one of their graduations, where the trainers give the dogs away to their new blind owners and I heard it is a very touching ceremony. I will be taking lots of pictures so I can post them on the blog for everyone to see. You are probably wondering why I want to learn about all this information and why this is even a senior project just learning about all of the different types of dogs. But I am finding out about all of this because I want to figure out if I would like to train a guide dog or train my current dog to be a therapy dog. To see if I want to train Sierra, my dog, as a therapy dog I am going to shadow a therpay dog session at a nearby hospital next Saturday. I am very excited and can't wait to report back on all the new adventures I will be going on!