As I posted a week or so ago we were a bit worried about Charlie my guide
dog.
Well the blood tests came back and it looks like he has got a thyroid
problem. He's on a course of pills for 6 weeks to see if that brings it
under control. If it does then he'll be on the medication for the rest of
his life but at leased we now know what's going on.
Next week Katy from Guide dogs for the blind is coming to give me and
Charlie a driving test, or what's properly called a home-care visit. I think
she'll also be doing a retirement assessment on him. In March he turned 9
which is late middle age in dog years and I think Katy and I will come up
with how long Charlie has left to work, I have a feeling he'll retire about
this time next year.
The question that this leaves me with is what I do when he can't work any
more. It looks like Charlie will be going back to my parents to live out his
old age which will be nice as I'll still get to see him.
I have 2 options, Train for a new working dog or go back to using a white
cane. I've not used a light sabre, (AKA white cane) properly for about 8
years.
The reason I'm not sure what to do is because of the little one coming.
Having the responsibility of a young dog and young baby at the same time
seems like asking for trouble and it's yet another thing to be organised
about if we want to go anywhere. There is also the matter of going away to
be trained. When I went away to get trained with Charlie I was at the centre
for a month and for the first 2 weeks you weren't really meant to have
visitors. I'm not sure if this is still the case but if it is then I'm not
sure that's fare on Gem leaving her with the little one for a month. Even if
I can train from home then I'll still need to take about 5 weeks off work
which is my annual leave for the entire year. I maybe able to sort something
out with work and I'd look in to seeing if we'd be able to get some
financial support from Access to Work but I just don't know.
On the other side of the argument I don't want to lose any of my
independence that Charlie gives me and if I do go back to using the light
sabre then is that fair on Gem in terms of maybe not having the independence
that I currently have.
So as a trial I did a week with out Charlie last week. Before the week I
thought I was going to hate it and it would help me make my mind up about
getting the next dog. It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was going
to be. At work there wasn't really a lot of difference but walking home was
quite different. I'd forgotten just how much more you need to concentrate
when working with the light sabre in comparison with Charlie. I walked home
twice and the first walk was ok however the second wasn't great. There was
cars parked on the pavement, when I'm with Charlie I don't even need to
think about it, with the stick it was more of a problem and it sounds stupid
but I actually found it really hard to find the house. Gem and I live in a
mid-terrace and there are not many guides or hints to tell you which one is
our gate.
But as the week wasn't as hard as I thought it was its left me more confused
then I was at the beginning of the week.
I'll probably be talking through a lot of this stuff with Katy on Tuesday to
see if we can't come up with some answers.
The other consideration is that I need to decide what I'm going to do fairly
quickly as If I'm going to go for a new dog I need to let guide dogs know so
that they can start the matching process.
I just don't know!
Write well that's enough for now.
Take care all.
Nick.
