Author: kathleen

Some will recall that on Tuesday, I was denied service at the Café Brazil location in University Park on Central Expressway.

They reached out today and promised to fix the issue (of course, I’m trying again next Tuesday and will have their email with me). The letter was very gracious. I even went to their Carrollton location yesterday and they didn’t bat an eye at Dulce. I spoke to the person managing the store afterwards and told her the story. She wasn’t surprised, but was dismayed and said, “Yes, they were wrong”.

My agility instructor wondered why I went to the Carrollton location but I was craving their pancrepes (she agreed they were awesome, she eats them in a slightly different way), and I also didn’t want to trash an entire restaurant chain for one person’s actions.

Some advice: It always pays to act in a reasonable adult manner when you have a service dog issue. Sometimes it is hard, but you will win in the end (do you really want to do business with people who act that way). With any business reaching out to the manager is a good idea. I’ve had it pay off in the past. If the store manager won’t help, go over his head. Especially with chains. A good chain, be it a restaurant or any other business, doesn’t not want one person hurting the entire business and they will fix it.

Lane Bryant is fixed, after I had an issue over a year ago. I still don’t buy clothing there, but at least they didn’t bother us either way this time. I don’t know about Anna’s Linens, but since my husband works for Tuesday Morning and Big Lots is cheaper and closer, I haven’t bothered. I might though, just for the other service dog people (I did call the National Office and complain).

Another thing for businesses to remember: You do me and the dog right – we’ll be loyal customers. Ask Nordstrom.

I really wish people would just leave your pets at home. Even though they may be well behaved they have not been trained how to handle situations such as a grocery store or a mall for example.

via tarraandduchess.blogspot.com

I agree, I am sure one of the reasons I was refused service yesterday was some idiot pet dog.

Now since Dulce is self trained, and because the average grocery is filthy, grocery stores are a challenge. When I am stocking up, I leave her at home, but do take her in when we are doing a quick pickup on the way from other errands.

I do keep an eye on her head, since it is close to the ground.

But please, don't try to pose as a service dog. There was an emotional alert dog at Nordstrom's the other day, and they need to stay home too. Emotional support dogs are not service dogs and general don't have the training.

They are not covered by the ADA, but are covered in housing and by travel carriers.

Today was my second treatment – we are focusing this week on deep issues that keep me from sleeping, while I work on getting regular hours setup.

She gave me a super perspective on my current situation, and I am hoping to keep that in mind. I’m already doing much better.

Leading up to the launch of the Medtronic 530G (and what a long lead-up it was) I kept asking myself “What’s the big deal?”

via sixuntilme.com

The big deal is that the pump does it automatically without user intervention, and since I have been going low at night, its a bigger deal.

Now I am one of the people who get good results on CGMS no matter the equipment. however, had site issues with dexcom that I don't with medtronics.

Note that I also was using the "suspend the pump for two hours" after the Enlight feature was mentioned. 

I read the wrong lab report, probably an old one.

My A1C is 7.0, we have been trying to get it down and we finally did.

Lots of pump tweaking to do.

Sent from my Windows Phone

I am bored and need a project and I came onto this site on the internet: http://www.gofundme.com/Servicedog4jadzia

Now ordinarily I would work with a diabetic needing a diabetes alert dog, but most of that is covered. Here is a teenager – 17 years old – who has spent most of her life in the hospital. She graduated from high school at 16, through a program in her area for students who are hospitalized. We have a similar program in Dallas.

She is very isolated and has few resources as a result. Let’s face it, our average kid with diabetes goes to school, maybe church and has lots of contacts who can help them fund raise. She doesn’t.

When I first mentioned the project on Facebook a good friend raised some very good questions – she asked why the girl and her family wasn’t getting the dog free from the organization who raises the dogs. That is a really common misconception – that the service dog organization does all the funding. I know that most people have to lay out a substantial part of the funding themselves. Even if the dog and program is completely free, the recipient has to pay for food, dog supplies and vet bills themselves, and as all dog owners know, that can add up quickly.

In addition, most programs require some type of application fee, even Seeing Eye Dog.

The newer programs often have the recipient do some of the fund raising. The organization that Jadzia is considering requires the recipient to raise some of the money to streamline the process. That is very common these days. I know that the organization I used to fine tune Dulce’s training does that – by the way, I paid 100% of the costs associated with Dulce, though I was lucky, I had the skills in place to recognize that she wanted to do that and the skills to do most of the training.

So the $8000 that Jadzia is raising is to help the service dog organization with fund raising – and trust me it’s a drop in the bucket – the typical cost to raise and train a service dog is over $20,000. She is also using some of that money for the initial maintenance of the dog – remember, she’s 17, and is only a high school graduate.

Right now, Jadzia is completely dependent – the purpose of her service dog is to work both as a heart monitor, but also to help her learn how to cope with society. Remember, this is a teenager who hasn’t been to school and hasn’t been able to get out and interact with society. All things her service dog will be trained to help her with.

While the website has some suggestions for donation – it will take any amount – even contributing $25.00 will help, especially if a lot of people chip in. And please, RT this on Twitter and Share it on Facebook. Who knows who it will reach.

Today's alert is exactly why I use her. She was ahead of the Enlight pump and the drop was caught early enough so I just had to delay cardio long enough to process some of the juice.

It would have worked faster if the lap band didn't slow every thing down, sipping not gulping the juice.

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We did things in a different order than usual, had an errand to run.

She got and wanted to leave 9 minutes into cardio after doing a leg workout. Thankfully we are at planet fitness and could take advantage of the black card. We are sharing an orange juice and staying near the front desk.

Hoping that the temp basal rate would do the job but it didn’t.

My first visit was purely intake.  They gave me some tests and discussed the sleep issues.  No treatment at all.

Yesterday was my first visit with the person treating me.  She specializes in both sleep and pain, and acknowledged that the issues are related – FYI: The sleep center is part of the pain center.

She sent me home with a relaxation CD and with a sleep log.  A bit difficult as I have to keep up with paper and pen, and am looking for an electronic way to do the same thing.  Currently it’s downstairs on the dining room table.

She is having me go out of summer mode and suggesting that is a bad idea.  She’s right – it’s always an adjustment to go back to school and isn’t good for me.  It might be okay if I adjusted further in advance, but for now, I’m going back to my school hours.

Today is a little hard because I have endo. labs and can do them until 8:00.  I’m going to come up with a different set of activities for early morning, but right now, I’m blogging and working on household finances. 

We discussed why I have sleep issues – I told her I have always had trouble with that, and we worked out a go to bed routine that I followed last night.

All in all a good visit.