[nagdu] navigating without your cane

[Criminal Justice Major Extraordinaire]

I believe sadly, that instructor gave up too quickly on that student and 
didn't have patience.
My thought is I tell people directly that if they're going to be an O&M 
instructor or even work in the guide dog field, they *really* and *need* to 
have lots of patience as so many disorders besides blindness have been on 
the horizon much more than what would be known or expected.
If a person can't be willing to be strong and have patience around many who 
do experience spatial or other types or disorders from blind individuals as 
a whole, then it's probably better they don't do any field work in O&M or 
guide dog instruction.
I hope I'm not creating a defense meganism here, but reality here is that 
there are some individuals out there who really don't think about doing 
their research or job shadowing in either of those fields before making 
their final decision.
My friend, Natalie Orrell who is on this list could really talk about 
spatial disorder as she experiences it on a daily basis.
Guide Dogs for the Blind and Guide Dogs of America gave her that opportunity 
to work with a guide dog and I'm happy to say that Nat and Liam are a great, 
well respected guide dog team and they have accomplished a lot together for 
the three years they've been a team.
When my husband Dale and I would work with her and show her how routes 
differ from something that is familiar and can be much more complicated when 
going into familiar territory, Dale or I will take a step back and try to 
work with her slowly and doing things step by step and slowly moving from 
one step on to the next.
I deal with a Convulsive Grandmal Seizure disorder daily now and have to 
take things more slowly upon focusing myself to stay calm withoutt 
panicking.
If I were to panic, anxiety would rise, stress level can get bad and next 
thing that happens, full blown severe asthma attack and then the convulsive 
grandmal seizure begins to kick in.
I also experience times of where I'm emotionally unstabled and again, it's 
due to the anxiety and that severe depressions runs in my family.
I easily could just sit back on the list here and be in denial with 
everyone.
That's not my intention and I truely don't mind sharing my experiences of 
going through all of that and having to put up with it all.
My hopes are since I'm dealing with all of this that I can help out another 
person by increasing a better outcome with encouraging them to go for 
whatever they desire, staying positive and making a big difference.
Life is too short for giving up and despite all I've been through, 
especially now with the CGSD, I'm not giving up that easily and will keep 
pushing on until I'm physically or feel that I am no longer or able to do 
so.
*Smiles*
Bibi and Odie
the happy spirited bounty labra wolf