Pictures below! Today we met with Brad’s ME/CFS specialist. We meet with him every year to see if there are any new treatments, and so that Brad has documentation for disability reviews. I decided to take Alice so I could work on her walking in different types of buildings. She’s walked in one medical appointment building, and never in an office building.
She didn’t hesitate at all to walk into the building, even though it was a manual door (she prefers automatic doors). When we got inside, I realized that they have a floor that has carpet on the edges, but shiny black tile in the center. My first service dog, Sabrina, had a hard time with shiny black floor tiles as she thought they were drop offs into nothingness! This is the first time Alice has seen such floor tiles.
At first she avoided the shiny black tiles and walked only on the carpeted edges. But by the time we reached the elevator, she was stepping foot onto the black tiles every once in a while.
I am too scared of the elevator door squishing her, so I carried her in the elevator. When we got out, I put her back down for the walk down the hallway into the office. She did great, even going through another big manual door.
They showed us to the exam room, and we had a really good appointment with Dr. Lapp. He is an ME/CFS specialist who is widely known—we are very lucky to have him so close to us!
He remembered that Alice came with us for the last appointment—though she was carried then. He was sad Hestia didn’t get to make it as well.
Then we got down to business. We talked about how Brad’s symptoms have worsened over the past year, and what little things have helped (electrolyte drinks, compression socks, and drinking lots of water). He did a minimally invasive exam on Brad, so Brad only had to stand for about 3 minutes, which was great. Dr. Lapp always spends a lot of time asking about lots of symptoms and getting a really full picture of Brad’s health.
Then he told us that in the last year some new treatments have come to light!!! He prescribed Brad a medication that’s supposed to help a lot of people with ME/CFS!!! He also told us about a supplement that helps, but it costs $600 a month so we can’t do that. And apparently wasabi helps, too—the real stuff, not the horseradish imitation that is sold most of the time in the US. So we are going to look into getting some wasabi off of Amazon.
At the end of the appointment, he complimented Alice on how well behaved she was. As we were checking out, the receptionist complimented her, too! Brad got a few pics of me holding Alice while paying and making our next appointments.
Then I put Alice down and walked her out of the office. She did fantastically! I was worried again about the elevator, so I carried her into it. But then I put her down while we were in it (Brad got some pics) and she walked out of it on her own and was perfect!
Brad also got some pictures of us walking down the hallway with the shiny black tile. Alice kept wanting to stray over to the carpet, but she managed to walk most of the way on the black tile! I was very pleased! I also got a couple of pictures of Brad in his super snazzy purple and turquoise outfit.
Then we headed to the pharmacy to drop off Brad’s new prescription. Alice has never been there before, either. So I walked her in and she did wonderfully with the automatic doors. She wanted to kinda hang out a bit in the entranceway while Brad went over to start talking with the pharmacist. But eventually she was comfortable walking over close to the counter (she struggles with getting close to counters). We worked on some sit stays with her—I got up to 20 seconds!
The pharmacist was checking to see if they had the med in stock and if Brad’s insurance would cover it, so I walked around a little and Brad got some pictures.
Then she told us it would only be 5 minutes until it was ready! I had Brad take a quick video of Alice walking up and down a couple of aisles in the store while we waited. She was really good! She did pause a little when it came time to pass Brad—she struggles with walking past people sometimes. But pretty quickly she was able to gather herself and walk past him with aplomb!
She approached the counter well when it was time to get Brad’s prescription from the counter, which was good.
Then we walked over to Harris Teeter to drop off the old plastic grocery bags we’ve been collecting. She was great on the walk over and back.
We are finally home now, and will spend the rest of the day relaxing! What an outing!
In the pictures I have short brown curly hair with a teal butterfly in it. I am wearing a peach and teal and green Boho dress with an orange mask. Alice is a tiny sable and white Japanese Chin wearing a purple harness. Brad is wearing turquoise pants, a grey shirt, a turquoise with pink and purple flowers tie, a turquoise scarf, a purple jacket, a turquoise beetle pin, and a lacy hat with blue and red flowers on it.