[nagdu] Listening in the Wings

[Margo and Arrow]

toni, prayers coming your way and your husband's way.

yes, these dogs provide not only the guiding they do but they provide so 
much emotional help.

Margo and Arrow
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Toni Whaley" <blind_treasurer at verizon.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 2:39 AM
Subject: [nagdu] Listening in the Wings


> Hello!
>
> Although I've been reading all the messages and have found many of the
> threads very interesting, I haven't had the time or energy to respond. Two
> months ago my husband had 12 hours of heart surgery to repair a whole
> between the ventricles in his heart. Fortunately, the surgery was
> successful. Unfortunately, many complications have slowed down his 
> progress.
> These include: fluid on the lungs, extreme physical weakness, inability to
> swallow food. He is unable to speak above a whisper, an this speech is for
> the most part unintelligible.Sometimes he's able to communicate through
> child-like writing which doesn't helpp me unless someone is there to read
> it. Until last week he was still in the cardiac-pulminary ICU. He was, and
> still is, too weak to participate in strenuous physical therapy of the 
> type
> given in most nursing facilities. Yet he had made enough progress so that
> the insurance companies wouldn't pay for him to remain in the ICU. So he 
> was
> transferred from a hospital about a mile from my home accessible by taking
> one bus to a rehab hospital 21 miles from my home accessible by taking 
> three
> buses. Fortunately, I can get to this hospital by using paratransit.
>
> At this writing my husband's condition has changed very little. His
> inability to do much for himself makes him extremely anxious. This causes
> his speech to be fast and choppy, increasing its intelligibility. The 
> speech
> therapist and I have created a speech board in braille and print which
> contains his most frequently requests. This is helping some.
>
> Hazel has done well spending long days in the hospital, and we're 
> educating
> a lot of people at both hospitals. She has also provided several occasions
> of amusement to me. One day I was walking with one of the surgeons back to 
> a
> conference room. As we passed a man walking in the opposite direction, 
> Hazel
> quicklly took a sniff of his crotch. Of course, I corrected her for this.
> But the surgeon showed some understanding of dogs by saying, "I guess you
> can't take the dog out of the guide dog." All of the nurses in the ICU
> enjoyed Hazel. Indeed, they were extremely disappointed on those few days 
> I
> didn't bring her to the hospital. The staff at the new facility are now
> getting to know us as well.
>
> Toni
>
>
>
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