[nagdu] getting lost

Tamara Smith-Kinney tamara.8024 at comcast.net
Sun Apr 5 22:33:44 UTC 2009


Mardi,

Most of the time when I get lost it's because I'm trying to watch where I'm
going.  Then I can't seem to get my brain to get back into "blind" mode and
interpret my other senses properly to tell me where I am.  Makes me batty!
At those times, I really do find myself thinking how great it will be when I
finally finish "going blind" and can't do 
that to myself anymore.  I'm far enough along in the vision loss process
that it's not so extreme anymore, but now that it's spring and there's
sunshine, I do catch myself walking along, looking at something, and
suddenly being totally discombobulated.

Not having sound to use would be really hard to overcome.  I didn't realize
how much my sense of orientation had started to rely on sound until I was on
a familiar street at a time there was just no traffic.  I was all over the
place!  Could not walk straight if my life depended on it.  Then a car
finally went by on the street, and everything straightened out for me.

I have to admit, at times like a that a dog beats a cane hands down.
Although when Mitzi was younger, it was sometimes the dog that got me into
trouble in the first place.  /grin/  Then again, using the cane to get out
of being lost strengthens my general O&M by leaps and bounds over just
relying on Mitzi.

That Braille compass sounds great.  I hope you find it soon!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Mardi Hadfield
Sent: Sunday, April 05, 2009 12:45 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nagdu] getting lost

Hi every one,    I used to get lost a lot when I actually had more sight
than I do now. I think it was because I was trying to use the vision I had
rather than rely on my dog. The echo technique is good for some people, but
I am deaf in one ear,so even though I can hear the echo or the sound of
traffic, dog barking,ect., I can't tell where that sound is coming from. I
hate to go some place that I have never been to before, unless I have some
one with me as I still get lost some times. If I can't find some to go with
me, I will ask that some one ,meet me at the bus stop if possible. If I have
been to a place at least twice, Nala will recognize it and she will keep me
from getting lost. For a while I used a braille compass and that was a big
help, but I seem to have lost it now so I really rely on my dog and she does
keep me from getting lost most of the time. Once I was coming home from a
friend's new appartment and it was very late at night. I turned down the
wrong street and got lost.. I finally realized the the dog knows where she
lives and told Nala to take me home. She did. I don't have a very good sense
of direction. I think part of it is being deaf in one ear and some brain
dammage. Before my accident, some times I had trouble finding my way to a
place, but could always find my way home. This has nothing to do with
getting lost but, the other day I went to the grocery store and got carried
away with buying all the stuff I needed. I had more stuff than I could
saftly carry home on my wheel chair. I had one large bag on my feet, one on
my lap, one on the back of the chair, and two bags tied on either side of
the chair. I could not hold the harness handle, because of all the grocery
bags. I could hold the leash though. Nala has never been trained to leash
lead, but she did leash lead me home from the store. She stopped at all the
right places,and she stopped and stepped backwards when a car backed out of
a driveway. She took me around several paked cars on the side of the street,
and when a dog ran out of it's yard towards us, she stopped and kept it from
getting to me as it was barking and growling and lunging. She did not bark
at the dog , she just kept getting in front of me  so the dog could not get
to me. The owner came out  and dragged her dog into her house and we
continued on our way . I hope that Shaman will be at least half as good a
guide as Nala has been. She has been a very special dog for me.  Have a
great day,   Mardi and Nala, semi-retired and Shaman gdit
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