THANK YOU to all who have been following my daily share of DRAFT chapters in my book I LOVE OUR NHS – David’s Story. Today I am going to explain how JAKE looks after me and is my own medical detection dog.
Before having this page over to Jake can I ask if you love our NHS or not ? If the answer is YES the please join this facebook group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/424858988388705/
NO MESSING JOIN
I am ill. No I do not have covid but I am seriously ill. (Well I was ill when I wrote the initial draft for this chapter but I am better now.) My illness is not life-threatening although it is life changing. My illness is not contagious and is centred around my lifestyle. As I explained at the beginning of this book, I am receiving medical help but feel ever so guilty as I should rightly come way, way, way down the list of NHS priorities. I am NOT looking for sympathy but I AM looking for support, not for me but for our National Health Service. I am going to use my illness to generate that support. That is what this book is all about, my sharing anecdotes of love and thanking the beautiful people within our NHS.
I have vitamin deficiency which is causing mental distress and anxiety. Right now it is at the centre of my life and I need to move it to the side line. On Wednesday 1st December I had a routine blood test at my GP’s surgery. I was subsequently contacted and given a nurse appointment as there was something wrong with the results. That appointment was for Thursday 16th December 2021. However, due to government impositions such routine appointments, mine included, were cancelled.
A few days later I telephoned the surgery to ask what the abnormality within the result was. It took me nearly half an hour to get through to someone in order to chat about that result, so many people were calling the surgery. The lady I spoke to was herself clearly seriously stressed, I did my best to be kind and understanding although the long wait had been frustrating. Overall it was a good phone call where I learned that the blood sample showed I was B-12 deficient. What did that mean ? The lady at the other end of the phone line explained I needed a face to face appointment but all available slots were booked until 17th January so would I please call again in the New Year.
I went to the government website to find out what being B-12 deficient meant. As I read the symptoms I became more and more frightened as I recognised them in myself. I was not frightened because I was ill, an illness I had put down to inactivity and frustration living in a covid society, I was frightened because on 20th January 2021 I was due to donate blood, this was scheduled to be my thirty-fourth donation. I came to being a blood donor late in life, that is another story, it is a cause I am passionate about. I have/had an ambition to live long enough to donate fifty pints of blood. With this illness I fear I will not be able to donate next month. Will I be able to resume donation when I am on medication ? I do not know. What I do know, what I have decided today – Tuesday 28th December 2021 is that I am going to use my being ill to support or National Health Service.
Five hundred and twenty-five words there in four paragraphs explaining how I got to where I am right now. Wind the clock back for about a year and my own personal medical detection dog Jake diagnosed I was ill then did his level best both to tell me and to care for me.
Jake The Dog, Jake The Dog, there’s no one quite like Jake The Dog ! Jake came to live with my wife Maureen and I eight years ago, he is the boss and at the centre of our home. We would have it no other way.
Adopt Jake, Adopt Jake. Week after week after week my daughter Rebekah pestered us to adopt a dog she had found at a local rescue centre. She and her husband had recently adopted Lucy and she was determined we would give Jake his forever home. I don’t want a dog ! I persistently explained as she persistently insisted we adopt Jake. She would bring picture after picture after picture on her phone, week in week out as she demanded Adopt Jake, Adopt Jake !
Finally, one Sunday Maureen gave in and we went to the rescue centre to check out Jake. I still did not want to adopt a dog ! Maureen was ahead of me as we went into the kennel, Jake picked up a toy and ran to the cage bars to say hello. From that moment on we were definitely going to adopt Jake.
We waited in line at the reception, when our turn came the required paperwork was completed. We would pick Jake up on 1st October after a few checks and training sessions had been completed. Turning to leave we heard the couple behind us ask if they could meet Jake. After weeks and weeks and weeks of nobody wanting Jake, had we been just a few minutes later we would not have adopted our now so much loved friend. Destiny knew what she was about did she not ?
Jake knew I was ill. He started to follow me everywhere I went about the house. If I took a bath he would sit outside the bathroom door. If I took an afternoon nap he would lay on the bed with me. Still today if I leave the room, even for a few moments, he will follow me. If I go out of the room and close the door so Jake can not follow me he will sit on my chair until I come back. He knew I was ill, he detected the fact that I was suffering.
Lucy Dog came to stay with us for a couple of days a few weeks ago. Lucy and Jake are great friends. Lucy was ill and we had to take her to the vet. Throughout her stay Jake fussed round her, carling and lovingly doing what he could to help her recover.
At the age of seventy-one years I have only been in hospital twice. Once was when I was born and once when I stupidly fell off a ladder and broke three ribs. Jake had not been with us for long when that happened but he remembers it so clearly. If I stand on a chair to reach up for something, or if I get out a step ladder he barks like crazy telling me not to do it. On one occasion as I stood on a chair he reached up, grabbed my leg in his mouth and tried to pull me down !
The day my daughter Rebekah died her husband was in our home. Jake sat on his feet and pressed his body against Gary’s legs. He knew what had happened. He knew that the lady who had persuaded her Mum and Dad to give him his forever home had passed on. He knew that Gary needed love and support. He was going to give that support
Jake The Dog. Jake The Dog. There’s no one quite like Jake The Dog.
Orbiting
around our National Health Service we have charities of Medical Detection Dogs,
Hearing Dogs for the Deaf and Seeing Dogs for the Blind. Dogs have senses we
mere humans can not begin to comprehend. Love comes natural to a dog. Dogs are
special, Jake is special; he is my on personal medical detection dog an
therapist. Where would our NHS be without the love and support of assistance
dogs ?
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