[Cagdu] FW: Why does a Partially sighted person need a guide dog"

Thu Jan 23 09:59:20 PST 2014

Subject: Why does a Partially sighted person need a guide dog"

"Why does a partially sighted person need a guide dog?"
By Phyllis Collett

SHORT ANSWER: because it's much safer and 500% less stressful.
LONG ANSWER: Being legally blind, i.e. having less than ten percent of
normal vision (and in my case, less than 
five percent) means more than needing corrective lenses. Imagine that you go
on a day's outing with a group of friends and you plan to buy a meal, snacks
and drinks along the way. Each of them brings $25 for this purpose, but 
you are limited to just $1.75. Are you going to be hungry? Is your
enjoyment going to be less than theirs because 
you have to stand aside and watch your friends enjoying culinary delights
while ignoring your complaining tummy? 
I suspect the answer to both of the above is "yes." 
It is true that I can see, my five-percent-of-normal has its limitations. I
do not have binocular vision, thereby I'm told) lacking the richness of the
three dimensional. A dark line across the asphalt sidewalk could be:
shadow, a crack, a stick, a step/curb or snake (I live in a rural area).
My poor, overworked brain has to run through all of the above possibilities,
factoring in the time of day, present 
lighting conditions, previous knowledge of the route and probably lots of
other data of which I'm not aware. 
Multiply this umpteen times a day and add in the cumulative exhaustion of
the need for a constant state of high 
alert. Now, by the use of some sort of quirky mathematics, calculate the
effects of the near misses and the minor 
bumps, scrapes and falls when my brain computer doesn't get it quite right.
Finally, adjust the whole equation to 
include the irregular blind spots (retinitis pigmentosa) which my helpful
brain fills in with erroneous information and "Voila!": I have arrived at
rather painful encounter with a signpost. Is an independent trip to the
coffee shop really 
worth all that? I grew up with the belief that degree of difficulty was an
unacceptable excuse for refusing to do something. I wanted to be like
everyone else: I wanted to be like all the other kids. Bad enough to have to
sit, always, in the front of the classroom, be excluded - on doctor's
orders - from all sports involving a ball, and miss out on so many
exciting events while pretending to share the enjoyment of others. I learned
to pretend to see, to act as if I saw, and never, never, say "I can't
see that." 
Thinking back on the first 60 years of my life, I am shocked to remember
the burdens of stress and tension, with 
the resulting fatigue, that was an everyday part of my existence. I am
amazed that I was able to continue. True, I 
had pared down my life "a bit" (understatement of the year), found
satisfying substitutes, worked out alternates of traveling and, quite
simply, continued to be an unacknowledged and therefore, unassisted, blind
person.
Around age 60, I was ready for this to change. As with many of our
life-altering decisions, there was no one big 
reason; rather many small and coincidental events which arrived on my
mental doorstep at a time when I was open and ready to walk down a
different path. The very slow but inexorable drop in my visual ability was
forcing me, for the third time in six years, to revamp my coping methods
for travel. This time I wanted to choose a direction that would take me
forward, embracing these and any future physical changes.
Having spent ten years working in the disciplines of therapeutic massage,
aromatherapy and natural healing, my 
experience with the mind-body-spirit continuum was awakening me to the cost
(to me) of denying who and what I was.
Out walking along a rural road on a beautiful spring morning, I was struck
by the thought, "Why am I not hearing any bird song? There must be tens of
species in the surrounding fields and trees." So stunned was I by this 
realization, I came to an abrupt halt. As I stood still, with no need to
concentrate on the cracked and broken asphalt 
along the way, I heard all those delightful, trills, cheeps and melodies.
Suddenly came the understanding: this was metaphor for my life. Going
forward "sighted" was so expensive in terms of mental concentration and
physical effort, there was nothing left over with which to experience the
joy of life. The next sentence in my head was, "I 
want a dog."

Simple? Not on your Nellie. Having spent a great many years pretending to
see, I was now experiencing a great deal of difficulty in persuading people
that really, I couldn't. I had the act down so perfectly: even with the 
ophthalmologist&#39;s report in front of them, almost all of the
professionals
who interviewed me (in person or via letter and forms) would say, "You use
your vision. You won't be able to work with a dog." 
It was like a slap in the face. Having admitted, finally, first to myself
and then to the world at large that I did have a 
disability and I really would like some help, no one was willing to believe
me. How might you feel if you could 
manage, just about, to get around your house using a walker and were told
that this meant that you couldn't have wheelchair to enable you to go two
blocks to the bus stop? I'm persistent. If you like me, this means that I'm
focused and goal-oriented. If you don't like me, I become stubborn and
blinkered. I began writing letters (yes, in 2001 people still put keyboard
to paper). Most of the replies 
we're varying degrees of negativity. One wonderful woman, whom I only
remember as Susannah from Pennsylvania hoo trained assistance dogs,
referred me to Toni and Ed Eames. Toni and Ed emailed me (progress came
along just 
in time) a copy of their book A Guide to Guide Dog Schools and I wrote more
letters (very few had email contact 
information). Twenty two schools later, one was willing to give me a
chance. That, my friends, brings us to the point of this story: Leader
Dog, Ella, (a yellow Lab) and I began a new life together.
Was it easy? No, it most definitely was not. I had fought all my life to
be independent and, in accepting partnership with a canine guide, some
part of me felt as if I were taking a step back into dependency. The changes
came slowly but surely, on an almost daily basis. From the start I had
made an intellectual decision that I would trust my dog otherwise, why
bother, right?) I didn't have any "WOW" experiences during the month at
training school. However, on the way back to Israel, after graduation, I
made an overnight stopover in Europe. In the evening, taking Ella out to
relieve," along what I thought was a quiet alley, I was overwhelmed by all
three of the conditions under which my vision becomes virtually useless;
strong direct lights, high noise levels, and random movement. Our quiet
alley had become the middle of a very busy parking lot. Numerous guests,
having attended a function in the hotel, were leaving, turning on 
headlights and revving motors. I did the equivalent of a mental U-ey, took
a deep breath, closed my eyes and said, 
"Ella, forward." At that point I knew we were going to make it. My memory
cannot dredge up a single panic attack 
which occurred after that incident. During our first six months together, I
experienced an amazing surge of vailable energy. It was just amazing to
realize the effort which I had expended on day-to-day activities such as
grocery shopping, picking up the mail and walking to the swimming pool. 
Over the years, there have been occasions when it was advisable to leave
my guide dog at home. It's never a really comfortable experience and the
incentive needs to be a very strong one indeed, to persuade me to do so. As
any f you who are partnered with a service animal know, it's not all
chocolate and roses. When, for the fourth 
time in one rainy, cold, wintery day, I find myself wiping the mud off my
dog's paws, legs and tummy, changing 
my mud-caked shoes and looking for a place to hang my dripping jacket, I
have been known to wonder if I am 
crazy. The feeling has never lasted very long. The overall gain has been so
magnificent that the negatives are 
experienced as minor inconveniences. 
I no longer suffer panic attacks when traveling alone. When we walk from
place to place on our kibbutz, doing the 
daily routes and chores, I am less hampered by the obstacles posed by the
many building renewal projects than some of my friends.
My second Leader Dog, DeeDee (a black Lab with one previous owner), and I
have been paired for four years and 
things just keep getting better. We are working so smoothly that our
biggest problem these days is convincing 
others, when I do ask for assistance, that I really do need it. Does a
guide dog understand "partially sighted"? I believe so. With Ella, #1, that
perception seemed to be in place 
within the first year. Several members of my family commented on the fact
that she worked very differently when 
we were not on our regular patch. DeeDee, #2, was different. She spent the
first 18 months trying to get her head 
around no sidewalks, no right angles, country lanes with "rule-less&quot;
traffic patterns, the persistently appearing 
(almost overnight) weeds, thistles and bushes, the ubiquitous potholes and
the irregular- or non-existent boulders at 
the sides of the road. And then, she too, began working differently when we
were in an unfamiliar place. (She is overjoyed when, on our trips back to
the US, she gets to work in a "real city, with real sidewalks, curbs and
corners.) 

I, for my part, have begun to understand that DeeDee, unlike Ella, is not
very assertive and is reluctant to challenge 
me if a course seems "wrong" to her. When she becomes hesitant, I know that
it's time to close my eyes for a few meters, thereby preventing my faulty
perception from interfering with her work.
My dogs and I have had some wonderful adventures: Disney World (twice,
third coming up next year with granddaughter #3), Yellowstone, Canyon
DeChelly, Washington DC Metro, lots of trans-Atlantic flights, hotels, malls
and restaurants. Sometimes, we're with another family member: often it has
been just the two of us. It has always been amazing. In September we're
going to Vancouver to "see" marine mammals. 
Could I have done all that without a guide dog? Possibly, but the strain,
stress and effort required would have 
crowded out almost all of the pleasure, enjoyment and relaxation!
I've learned to curb my tongue when an untutored stranger tells me, "You
don't need a guide dog. You're not blind: you can see." After a deep
breath, I smile and say, "I'm legally blind and the dog helps me to make it
all look 
as if I am not.
I suppose there is validity in the argument that a completely (actually a
fairly rare condition) blind person needs the dog more than I do and that by
giving me a dog, the school is depriving a needier person. Bottom line -
without a guide dog, my life would be much reduced in scope and I would be
left knowing that doing many things I wanted to do would produce such a high
stress level that, ultimately, I would just stay at home.
So, there it is; the $23.25 solution.

Becky Frankeberger

Butterfly Knitting

-           Ponchos

-           Afghans

-           Shawls

-           Custom Knitting

360-426-8389

becky at butterflyknitting.com

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