Service Dog for Ruby
Donation protected
As many of you know we spent much of the summer in and out of hospitals. Ruby had been having epsisodes of vomiting that we originally just dismissed as a stomach bug of one kind or another, until they kept happening and began to happen more often. After reaching out to a friend who suggested I ask our pediatrician to test her blood sugar levels. The outcome was alarming. Our Pediatrician immediately sent administration orders to CHOP and off to the ER we went fully expecting to be admitted for an unknown amount of time to start Type1 diabetic education. Although she she still tested high within a few hours she leveled back out and to all of our surprise they gave us a clean bill of health & sent us home that night. Our pediatrician was baffled, but followed up first thing with a visit on Monday morning and again she was cleared with him saying, “It must have been a fluke. Our glucose monitors are in perfect working order. I don’t get it. I’m more than happy she’s fine, but I thought for sure you were facing a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes.”
Fast forward a few weeks. Another episode. Another trip to the ER. Only this time they found that after a blood sugar spiked of over 300 & then plummeted to 40. They caught this on the lab work taken from a blood draw. The nurse rushed in with juice and urged her to drink it immediately and then explained to us what was happening. ONLY hours later the same hospital told us that she was “fine” and we could go home. Again. We refused to leave. Unfortunately there was no official diagnosis, only a pending one of Type 1. We were baffled, fearful and reluctant, but we brought her home. A blood sugar drop that low is dangerous, life threatening to say the least. We were afraid to let her sleep in her own room so she slept between us. I woke up every hour checking her and testing her blood sugar levels.
We switched hospitals and have seen two specialists since. We’ve seen an endocrinologist and a gastorintologist. She’s had all the appropriate testing and according to the doctors that have seen her she is fine. Her A1C is on the border, but not ‘high enough.’
Only she is not fine. She keeps getting sick. She keeps having lows and highs at all times of the day and night no matter what we feed her. No matter how I vigilant we’ve been we cannot control this entirely. We worry constantly that she’ll have a drop in levels while we are sleep and something terrible will happen.
From the very beginning I went to work on her diet. I read countless blog posts and all the articles I could find on diet and diabetes. Keto or a mostly ketogenic diet seemed to do the trick. We saw results almost immediately and she seemed to level out. Only out of no where one morning she dropped to below 40. She was then hospitalized again for four days. She continues to have episodes with no rhyme or reason. Despite my best efforts, monitoring almost every single bite she takes and testing her blood glucose at a minimum of 4X a day. We have no answers and are beyond frustrated.
Which brings us to this go fund me page.
I want to covey that I am not entirely comfortable with this, but just like we were totally God lead, in my faithful opinion, to the idea of a service dog that is trained for diabetic imprinting. {If you’re like me and never heard of it go type it in on YouTube and check it out. It’s amazing what these service pups can do.} I feel lead to start this campaign for our daughter. Ruby’s pup will be trained to alert us when her sugar is low. Even while she’s sleeping. The pups are imprinted/trained to detect a certain scent each time the blood sugar drops below 80. Which can be life threatening.
God always provides for us. We may not have a lot, but our basic needs are met everyday. And sometimes, a lot of times, we are blessed with more when is most needed. We have tried to teach our children to always give to those in need. It’s hard for us to ask for help, but this dog will cost more money than we can budget for and is certainly something we could use for peace of mind and our daughters health and well being, when we consider the depth and impact this dog can provide there is no price tag we can put on it.
We will certainly continue to pray that God provides for our needs, as He always does, but we are going to be praying extra hard that He provides for something that our little girl needs. Only, we didn’t even realize it until just over a week ago, when my husband was researching puppies. The girls have asked for another pup to add to our family. And while he was looking he just happen to come across a site that not only has hypoallergenic pups... because allergies, but they do diabetic imprinting. Originally he said, “There is NO way we can afford this!” And then we both dismissed it.
I had never heard of diabetic imprinting. I was immediately intrigued. I read the entire site of a husband and woman team and just knew we had to call them and if at all possible we had to meet them. The not only returned our call immediately, but they made a special allowance for us to visit their place on Saturday morning with only a few hours notice the evening before. They encouraged us to do more research and speak to others who provide the same, but felt very strongly that their 14 years experience is completely worth our time and money. I assure you it is. They are the nicest kindest people and more than ready to help us with our journey to get started with our pup. Only it takes a lot more than just getting the pup. Over the next weeks and months we have to collect saliva samples and freeze them to help train the dog to pick up Ruby’s scent when her sugars are low. There will be additional training costs and probably things we haven’t fully anticipated yet, but this dog will provide an extra safety measure and peace of mind that no doctor seems to be able to give us. We are asking that if you feel lead to donate that you would give whatever is in your heart to give. We trust that no matter what the outcome of this campaign is, that God will provide like only He does. God Bless you and thanks for considering supporting our daughter’s service-dog-to-be. Let’s face it being sick sucks, but we are hoping besides the peace of mind that this pup will bring that he also adds lots of licks and love for Ruby because at just five years old she’s already gone through a lot.
Fast forward a few weeks. Another episode. Another trip to the ER. Only this time they found that after a blood sugar spiked of over 300 & then plummeted to 40. They caught this on the lab work taken from a blood draw. The nurse rushed in with juice and urged her to drink it immediately and then explained to us what was happening. ONLY hours later the same hospital told us that she was “fine” and we could go home. Again. We refused to leave. Unfortunately there was no official diagnosis, only a pending one of Type 1. We were baffled, fearful and reluctant, but we brought her home. A blood sugar drop that low is dangerous, life threatening to say the least. We were afraid to let her sleep in her own room so she slept between us. I woke up every hour checking her and testing her blood sugar levels.
We switched hospitals and have seen two specialists since. We’ve seen an endocrinologist and a gastorintologist. She’s had all the appropriate testing and according to the doctors that have seen her she is fine. Her A1C is on the border, but not ‘high enough.’
Only she is not fine. She keeps getting sick. She keeps having lows and highs at all times of the day and night no matter what we feed her. No matter how I vigilant we’ve been we cannot control this entirely. We worry constantly that she’ll have a drop in levels while we are sleep and something terrible will happen.
From the very beginning I went to work on her diet. I read countless blog posts and all the articles I could find on diet and diabetes. Keto or a mostly ketogenic diet seemed to do the trick. We saw results almost immediately and she seemed to level out. Only out of no where one morning she dropped to below 40. She was then hospitalized again for four days. She continues to have episodes with no rhyme or reason. Despite my best efforts, monitoring almost every single bite she takes and testing her blood glucose at a minimum of 4X a day. We have no answers and are beyond frustrated.
Which brings us to this go fund me page.
I want to covey that I am not entirely comfortable with this, but just like we were totally God lead, in my faithful opinion, to the idea of a service dog that is trained for diabetic imprinting. {If you’re like me and never heard of it go type it in on YouTube and check it out. It’s amazing what these service pups can do.} I feel lead to start this campaign for our daughter. Ruby’s pup will be trained to alert us when her sugar is low. Even while she’s sleeping. The pups are imprinted/trained to detect a certain scent each time the blood sugar drops below 80. Which can be life threatening.
God always provides for us. We may not have a lot, but our basic needs are met everyday. And sometimes, a lot of times, we are blessed with more when is most needed. We have tried to teach our children to always give to those in need. It’s hard for us to ask for help, but this dog will cost more money than we can budget for and is certainly something we could use for peace of mind and our daughters health and well being, when we consider the depth and impact this dog can provide there is no price tag we can put on it.
We will certainly continue to pray that God provides for our needs, as He always does, but we are going to be praying extra hard that He provides for something that our little girl needs. Only, we didn’t even realize it until just over a week ago, when my husband was researching puppies. The girls have asked for another pup to add to our family. And while he was looking he just happen to come across a site that not only has hypoallergenic pups... because allergies, but they do diabetic imprinting. Originally he said, “There is NO way we can afford this!” And then we both dismissed it.
I had never heard of diabetic imprinting. I was immediately intrigued. I read the entire site of a husband and woman team and just knew we had to call them and if at all possible we had to meet them. The not only returned our call immediately, but they made a special allowance for us to visit their place on Saturday morning with only a few hours notice the evening before. They encouraged us to do more research and speak to others who provide the same, but felt very strongly that their 14 years experience is completely worth our time and money. I assure you it is. They are the nicest kindest people and more than ready to help us with our journey to get started with our pup. Only it takes a lot more than just getting the pup. Over the next weeks and months we have to collect saliva samples and freeze them to help train the dog to pick up Ruby’s scent when her sugars are low. There will be additional training costs and probably things we haven’t fully anticipated yet, but this dog will provide an extra safety measure and peace of mind that no doctor seems to be able to give us. We are asking that if you feel lead to donate that you would give whatever is in your heart to give. We trust that no matter what the outcome of this campaign is, that God will provide like only He does. God Bless you and thanks for considering supporting our daughter’s service-dog-to-be. Let’s face it being sick sucks, but we are hoping besides the peace of mind that this pup will bring that he also adds lots of licks and love for Ruby because at just five years old she’s already gone through a lot.
Organizer
Kate Mitchell
Organizer
Pitman, NJ
