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 It's starting to feel more like pre-summer here, and with the heat comes an added challenge in managing my CRPS.
After being out in hot weather, the safest way for me to cool down is to warm up. (yes, you read that right)
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 Living with CRPS is hard. Hard doesn't seem like a strong enough word.
CRPS pain is medically ranked as being worse than the most painful things people can imagine - amputation, kidney stones, child birth. It's not merely the pain, though. People have a weird relationship with pain... from the time we're kids we're immediately taught to ignore and override, to focus on when it'll be all better again. Naturally, when someone hears we LIVE IN pain, I believe they simply can't process the concept. Why can't we look ahead to the future, push it aside in the moment, and "get over it"? Hey, I know you're paralyzed, but just get up, walk over there, and climb the stairs. Push through. Get over it. Look to the future, when it's all better. Hear it now? I would never dream of saying that to someone with paralysis, but it's a sentiment commonly said to people with severe pain conditions, like Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.  I live a very tightly managed life. I have to, on account of living with full body Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Managing as many details about how a room is set up, how easy it is to make meals, how many steps I need to take to accomplish a task, having different clothing options for different sensitivity level days, how much noise or stimulation I'm exposed to, and so on are only a few of the multitude of measures we've taken in our lives to minimize flares and maximize my service dog's ability to help me. It's easy to forget how particular we have been about building our life sandbox for me, because by now, it's not "accommodation" by our metrics, it's life. Recently, we stepped outside our sandbox to go on vacation to see my family on the East Coast, and got an extremely jarring shocks to our systems as a result. 1,800 miles driven, there & back, 2 days each way, and days of being without our system of structure, mitigation, and the added complication of something we usually have the luxury to avoid... The Untrained Pet Dog. It was a disaster and an absolute mistake to go at all. Me being me, I began writing this blog post on the drive home to offer suggestions to fellow and future service dog teams on handling this situation better than we did.
 It's November! November, for those of you new to our page or new to CRPS life, is the official awareness month for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. The awareness color is either orange or a fire gradient of red-orange-yellow. Every year, I honor CRPS month by sharing training tips, facts about CRPS, facts about CPRS Service Dogs, or some other way to educate people about this life. This year, I'll be posting every day on Facebook (I will try to match on Instagram), 30 different abilities and changes which have only been made possible in my life by working with a service dog for my CRPS. Some will be things made possible simply by training my own SD, because the truth is, change happens before they're doing task work.  *Your session date itself can be after November, as long as you BOOK during November* 20% off coaching sessions, 1 or 2 hr 15% off Current Dog Service Evaluation 15% off Fundamental Retrieve, Puppy Paw, or Beginner Paw Camp Preview of Fundamental Retrieve - essential for service dogs in training, beneficial for dogs with zero toy drive to learn how to play fetch Preview of Puppy Paw Camp - essential for new puppy owners, starting with a puppy as a service dog prospect, or puppy owners who want their pup to start off on the right paw Preview of Beginner Paw Camp - for dogs 7 months & older, who will be new to joining your household, or an essential starter package for new dog owners. Includes sessions BEFORE bringing your dog home to help you prepare  What can a dog do for severe, erratic, chronic pain? Most people would say nothing. They’re just dogs. I strongly disagree. In this post, I’ll give an overview of the various tasks that could be beneficial to someone with CRPS, how a dog can prevent flares, and how my own service dog helps me specifically
*For the purpose of this post my husband, who helped me write this post & who helped me owner-train my first service dog, will provide his concerns and frustrations for the “inside the home” viewpoint, but his thoughts and our eventual plan could be applied to anyone who lives with you and helps you out frequently.* *This has been cross-posted from Robbie’s Training Journal Blog* I have Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) full body. CRPS is a neurological condition in which the brain & central nervous system perceive all incoming stimuli as pain signals, without distinguishing between the soft touch of a hug or the sharp pain of a paper cut. For those with CRPS, simply living life is painful. There are days when the pain is so unbearable that all I want to do is curl up in bed and not move.  A few years ago I made the decision to adopt a dog & train him to be my service dog in order to help manage my daily pain. Robbie primarily does mobility assistance, but also performs pain interruptions. Robbie in my life means that at least 3x a day I must get up and take him outside, which is good for both of us. Additionally, I try to do things with him a little bit every day. No treatment has worked on me, so for now, working with a service dog is my long-term pain management plan. For the most part, anything I do requires me to grit my teeth and just do it. When my husband is home I will ask for help when I need it, but mostly I try to still be independent where I can be. A service dog will change the life of their new handler, and the lives of everyone close to the handler. You may be thinking, well that’s silly — the dog is for the handler, and only their life will change. It’s a reasonable thought. It’s a perfectly understandable thought. It’s exactly what we thought. And we were wrong.
Living with a disability, be it chronic pain or another, means days don’t always go as planned, and it’s good to have a back up plan for days with your service dog when you just don’t have the energy or patience for a full day of training, playtime, and more.
On your bad days, follow these tips for taking care of yourself, while still fulfilling your service dog’s needs. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is a severe pain condition that affects the nervous system. It is recorded as the worst form of chronic pain possible. It has many different names, including Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy and Hand-Shoulder Syndrome. No matter the name, it is the same condition. People think it is rare, but it is rare only because doctors are not educated about it.
Emergencies are bound to happen, and rarely at a good time.
Maybe you get in a car accident or your dog eats something toxic. You are away from home, and away from pertinent medical records for you and your dog. What do you do? You are so flustered you can't remember the contact information for your primary care doctor or your dog's vet. Your dog can't stay in the hospital with you — do you know your dog trainer's number by heart? Do you know anyone's number by heart? Can you explain why emergency personnel can't take your service dog to the pound? So much is going on. Too much is going on. That's where an emergency portfolio comes in handy. My first service dog, Robbie, passed away earlier this year, in May. The grief I felt... it ripped through me, pinned me down, and kept swinging back around to topple my stability for months to come.  |
AuthorHi, my name is Sally Fowler. I'm the owner & trainer for DADTC. I'll be writing posts with training tips, service dog basics, and more! Check out the categories below to find exactly what you're looking for! If you have any questions or there's a topic you'd like to see discussed here, please check out our contact page here. Archives
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