Health Haiku WTH!

Okay my first reaction to this assignment was very simple….WHAT THE H E DOUBLE TOOTHPICKS is a haiku…let alone a HEALTH HAIKU.  Looking this up on the web (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/haiku) I discover a haiku is “1. A Japanese lyric verse form having three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons.

2. A poem written in this form.”

I gave it a shot several times and the bottom-line is that this ISNT FOR ME!  I write poems…but this style absolutely does not fit how I learn or am!  So guess what IT AINT HAPPENING!!!!!!!

Hmmm, sometimes though this is how I feel about diabetes. It cramps my style and I want to scream THIS AIN’T HAPPENING.  Diabetes has a way of just messing with your head sometimes.  It doesn’t want to play by any sort of order or rules. It is a disease where very often your EFFORT does not equal the OUTCOME.   Some days you can do EVERYTHING that you have ever been advised to and still you run 50 points higher!  There is no rhyme, no tempo, and no cadence. 

This is where I fall back on my dad’s words “It is what it is, and it will be what it is”.  I have done my best, I have put forth great effort and I fell short. I now simply have to ride it out and see where it takes me!  I then have to take it ONE SET OF NUMBERS AT A TIME.  No focus back, no focus forward, it is just simply being with it.  It is not giving up or even giving in to it, it is just waiting patiently till the disease decides to play nice again.    I do my part to the best of my ability but then I have to let go of trying to control the outcome.

If I don’t do this I drive myself crazy!  I will sink into despair and self-pity.  Depression will surround my every move, but if I can keep my head wrapped around that I have done my best and that is all any of us can truly do then it helps me to not blame myself!  I shouldn’t have eaten this or that.  I shouldn’t have done that much exercise. I coulda/shoulda/woulda myself to death!

I have but 2 words for those days…DIABETES SUCKS!  Then I say to myself  “LET IT GO…you did your part”.   

We can shoulda/woulda/coulda all day long with this disease or for that matter any disease….sometimes we just have to know WE DID OUR BEST and let it go!

Ekphrasis Post

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705390004/K-9-heroes-to-be-honored-at-Soldier-Hollow-Classic-Sheepdog-Championship.html 

For those of you who know Bravo and me you have seen many good pictures of us!  Jeffrey D. Allred of the Salt Lake City Deseret News managed to capture in image what I believe to be at the center of how diabetic alert dogs work.  He captured the raw emotion from both Bravo and I after an alert!   My look is one of gratitude and love for this amazing dog…and his is in my humble opinion is  a look of absolute love and peace!  It is  “I JUST WANT YOU TO BE SAFE!”  “ I LOVE YOU AND YOU ARE MY WORLD”.

Over the years I have taken some flack if I stated that these dogs alert out of love.  I had one lady tell me that dogs are not capable of what we humans call love.  I understand what she was trying to say to me but I don’t think she understood what I was trying to say.  We can teach most any dog about SCENT work... but scent work is an OFFERED behavior.  Who truly knows what a dog smells and how they do it.   When training these dogs we teach them the particular scent we want them to acknowledge.  We then teach the desired behavior in combination with that scent and that is about as far as we can take it.  At that point….it becomes does the dog want to OFFER this behavior on its own!

What would make a dog want to offer this behavior on it’s own???  Some dogs seem to do it as a self-reward.  Some do it because we have always had a big PARTY when that scent is present.  Some do it because we are their world, we have spent hours and hours teaching, training, and playing with our dogs.  We are the source of EVERYTHING to our dogs!  Their basic needs of hunger and food come from us.  Their need and desire for order is enhanced by our actions.  Though love, discipline, and by simply spending a lot of time with us they very often JUST WANT TO PLEASE US!!!!  Most dogs want to know when they are right so they can do it again and again!  Their experience over time is that this makes us VERY HAPPY and they like to see us happy!  When you add the mood and behavior changes that diabetes can have in our bodies…these dogs just want that “BAD SCENT” to go away and for us to be HAPPY again.

I realize that I am simplifying this but I need for folks to understand how important BUILDING RELATIONSHIP with these dogs truly is!  Yes you can teach a dog scent….but to keep them at it YOU MUST BUILD AND WORK ON THE RELATIONSHIP!  It has to be tended daily! 

So get on it!  Build and grow the relationship with your dog!  Little by little and soon you will have your very own hero!

I write about my health because...

I write about my health and health related issues for a couple of reasons. 

The first reason is because if I write about it, it keeps my focus on doing what I need to do.  If I don’t keep it at the forefront of my mind it easy to get lax and let things slide.  Trust me, I would LOVE to just not have to keep anything health related at the forefront of my thoughts.   There are plenty of others things that interest me more than my health. 

The second reason I write is because if maybe, just maybe something I say will help others!  It never ceases to amaze me how un educated people truly are about diabetes!  It never ceases to amaze me how that same lack of education applies to dogs!  I guess I can understand it easier in animals that I can with health issues.  I mean the diabetic health industry is making BILLIONS off of those of us that have diabetes… the less we know the more money they make!  In animals it is easier…because a lot of folks have never seen an animal as anything more than a pet!

I would also hope that by sharing the good and the bad that others learn not only from my successes but also from my failures.  Diabetes is disease of trial and error…what works for me may not work for you and visa versa.  Sometimes when chatting with others they mention something very helpful, knowledge that they take for granted maybe something I don’t know!  Sometimes it could be something as simple as a low carb snack that I hadn’t thought off, while other times it could be more complex things like how to handle a bolus for pizza!

In my humble opinion knowledge and real life experience should always be shared as much as possible!

SUPERPOWER DAY

I have been granted a superpower for the day!  It can be anything I want it to be, but it is just for this day!  So many choices…I could say I want the ability to heal things, but I am thinking that would take more than one day.  I could say I want to ability to lift heavy objects….Lord knows I have lots of stuff that needs to be moved!  I could say I want the ability to make money, but it only last one day. 

The list could go on and on…but I think if I had one superpower for the day I want the ability to make people BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES and their own abilities.   I figure this has last effects…even if the power goes away.  People will remember what that feels like and always and evermore strive to get it back. 

Believing in yourself is never permanent…but once you have experienced it you always seek to maintain that feeling!  It makes us TRY and TRY HARDER!  Effort is all that can be ask of anyone or anything! 

In many cases…effort does NOT equal outcome but somehow effort seems to enhance our self-esteem.  If we know we tried…if we know we gave our best then we can let go of crappy outcomes.  We then learn to take it one moment at a time.  A friend always reminds that we have to take it one set of numbers at a time with the diabetes.  Don’t look ahead and don’t look back.  This moment, this time, this choice at this exact moment is all we truly have power over! 

It is never going to be perfect we can only TRY!

Quotation Inspiration

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in square holes, the ones that see things differently. They are not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify them or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world...are the ones who do.”(Excerpt from an Apple commercial)

The first time I saw this I thought, “WOW…that kind of fits me”.  I have always felt I was a square peg trying to fit in a round hole.  Just about every aspect of my life has been that.  It isn’t that I dislike rules…I just wish that we didn’t need them.  I wish that people could simply learn to trust their instincts and do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do!  Not for money, not for fame, not for credit but simply because it is the right thing to do. I am not sure what ever happened to the Golden Rule but it seems that we have somehow lost it! 

This whole diabetic alert dog thing…you have no idea how many people have told me I am CRAZY for thinking that self training a DAD can be done.  You have no idea how many have accused me of not playing by the professional rules (unwritten) that only dog trainers can do this.  I learned that that ANY competitive venue professional dog trainer will tell you that the stiffest competition comes from an over qualified amateur trainer.  Here is why…an amateur spends the time developing the relationship with their dog!  When a dog learns the job and then gives you their love and respect they find deep with in them the ability to give more, do more, and be more!

I firmly believe that I can take ANY dog handed to me and make them a better dog…but here is the problem if the OWNERS/HANDLERS do not commit to learning how their dog learns and thinks and if they do not practice this daily what happens is that the dog will work really well for the professional and not so much for the owner! I am not smarter than average. If I can do it I believe anyone can!   What I am is driven to know WHY!  What is the cause and effect and how can my actions change the effect?  What more can we learn? 

All of this also applies to my diabetes!  My diabetes doc thinks I am a whiz with this diabetes stuff…I am not.  I am driven to figure things out!  I refuse to lie down to things.  I know that diabetes is a disease where all of your best effort may not match the outcome. but I am going to die trying!  It is MY disease…not the doctors.  It is MY RESPOSIBILTY to figure out all of the things that work best for MY BODY.  The medical knowledge for the most part runs 10 years behind…the average GP spends a 2 week rotation in an endo clinic and they know more about my diabetes than I do living with it 24/7.  I don’t think so.  What has to happen is that we have to learn to work together as a TEAM.  Each bringing to the table the absolute best that we have to offer! 

It is the same with our dogs. We are a TEAM.  No one part is greater than the other. But if we don’t all do our share then it falls short! We must think outside the box to get the best results! 

If any of the above makes me a rebel or a misfit…I DON’T CARE!  I am going to keep on doing what I am doing as long as I am convinced it is the right thing to do!  Dare to live outside the box on all levels!