Andrew's Hope: Carina and Andrew...A Match made in Heaven

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Carina and Andrew...A Match made in Heaven

Ok so I haven't posted in a very long time.....here is an update for everyone who wants to know how Andrew and Carina are doing. The training itself was fun but exhausting. We were lucky enough to have family in the area that we could visit often while we were there. Now that we are home it still takes work and dedication to mainatain Carina's skills. She wants to play with the cats all three of them!! Each day is getting better. We are currently taking a swab of saliva from Andrew's mouth after a seizure and using that on Carina to help her cue in on Andrew's seizures. She continues to perform a pre alert at times, but currently his seizures are so frequent that she is probably stiffled with the scent.

Andrew has been having some very strong drops and jerks lately. Last night I was in the kitchen and Carina was walking behind me, Andrew was standing in front of the t.v. and had a huge and hard drop seizure. Carina immediately went to him and began licking him. (Esp the mouth ears and nose where the seizure smell emits from) She definatly knows that she is his dog and provides alot of comfort to him even when not having a seizure. Since we had the groomer cut her hair she is like a saoft puppy and he can't get enough of her.

Carina has the patience of a saint! Andrew will crawl over her lay on her and even HUG her!! It was the most awesome thing I have ever seen when Andrew walked upt to her last week as she was standing by the couch.....he wrapped his arms around her neck and gave her a big hug and laughed.

We are having trouble with the school allowing Carina in, even just for Andrew's monthly progress meetings! It is a public buliding and they are stating I have to give them 3 weeks notice before she can go on ANY school property. They produced a paper that stated that the handler of Carina has to be prperly trained and liscensed. There is no such thing as a liscensed handler! A battle better to be fought by the disability rights office. So I wait to hear from them.

The Keto diet is not working for Andrew. The new medicine from Canada does not seem to be working either, though we are not up to the full dose yet. Right now he has a horrible cold and cough that walks the fine line of almost being croup. AGAIN... he just had croup last month and was in the ER late at night.

Please check back for updated pictures soon.......

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About Andrew

Andrew is a very handsome wonderful 6 year old boy. He gives us so much joy to have him in our life and, just like any parents, we want to do everything we can to make his life better.

Andrew has bilateral hearing loss and a difficult to control seizure disorder. Andrew also has a visual processing disorder which essentially makes him "blind". While he can visualize objects, he can not process and identify what he is seeing. On top of this, Andrew also has a swallowing disorder which makes it necessary for specialized feeding.

The seizures Andrew has been diagnosed with have also included Infantile Spasms, which is a very serious diagnosis in a child. Due to the severity and frequency of Andrew's seizures, he is termed as "Global Delay" because of the interruption they cause in his daily learning and processing of information. This is despite of being on multiple medications and therapies.

At 3 years of age, Andrew took his first steps. We are still waiting for the day he says his first word. Andrew has come a long ways in the last 3 years. Having Carina enhance her training to include tethering will be wonderful for Andrew. We have fought long and hard to get him walking, including fighting the school when they wanted to put him in a wheelchair. Andrew should be indepdendent as safely possible and noone should ever hold him back.

Carina has improved Andrew's long term quality of life by alerting and providing comfort before, during and after seizures. She can also help to be Andrew's eyes and ears and provide a much needed source of support and comfort to him as he meets the upcoming challenges in his life. We heard about a great organization that places highly trained dogs.

4 Paws for Ability is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children and adults with disabilities. The dogs are specially chosen and trained specific to each individual's needs. Our previous fundraising was on behalf of 4 Paws For Ability in order to minimize the wait time and allow us to participate in the process of placing a dog with Andrew.

Why 4 Paws For Ability?

4 Paws For Ability specializes in training service dogs for children with special needs and has a very high success rate. We encourage you to visit their site at http://www.4pawsforability.org/ to learn more about this wonderful organization. 4 Paws For Ability is a 501(C) Non-Profit Agency and all donations are tax deductible. 4 Paws for Ability's mission is to "Enrich the lives of people with disabilities by the training and placement of service dogs to provide individuals with companionship and promote independent living." and "Assist with animal rescue whenever possible by obtaining many of our animals from shelters and rescue groups." Through a family friend, we heard of another family currently undergoing the training and placement process of a seizure response dog for their 4 year old daughter Caitlin. 4 Paws For Ability is very highly recommended and has placed over 500 service dogs!