Walk with me!

Just getting started with this blogging adventure. I am wagging my tail so fast it's like a tornado in here. That's how super duper excited I am to tell my story.

So I was just a few weeks old...I know WAY too young to be living it out on the tough streets but my sister and I had no place to go. Luckily I found my way to this lady who I think has a heart of bacon (much better than gold). She took me in and found me a foster family. I hung with them a little while then...

BAM...

I met my girls! They played with me and my sister for almost 2 whole hours...that's like a week in puppy time!

I don't know why they chose me but I bark and pray nightly they did. I love my sister and I am so sad she is no longer by my side. We lived a rough life together and we all hope she is just as happy with her family as I am with mine.

Anyway so the blog is titled "Beezus the Service Dog" (that's me if you haven't guessed)..."Lily the kid with arthritis.

Did you know kids can have arthritis? I didn't. Mom said according to The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)  juvenile arthritis affects children of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. About 294,000 American children under age 18 have arthritis or other rheumatic conditions.My girl just happens to be one of them. Mom has a form of arthritis too. It makes her hands and feet hurt really bad. Lulu (aka Lily) should be finding out tomorrow what kind of arthritis she has. Her knees have fluid on them, her hands and feet hurt and are swollen sometimes, and her neck and back hurt too.

So juvenile (cause she is under 18) is usually an autoimmune disorder. That means that her immune system is attacking itself. Nobody knows why some kids and adults have this disorder and sadly there isn't a cure...YET!  Mom read on the NIAMS website that some people believe that arthritis in kids is a two-step process. The arthritis is there in their gene make up and then a virus or something sets it off. Mom believes this too. She remembers the exact day her world changed. The day Lily was the sickest. For a whole week Lily had a 105 temperature and not even the ER doctors could bring it down long or make it go away. Mom says Lily was different after that. She was not even 2 yet.

So the most common symptoms of this awful thing that makes my little human hurt (but need me the way she does!) are joint swelling, pain, and stiffness that never seems to go away. It can affect the knees, hands, and feet. Usually worse in the morning or after a good nap. Some kids (like Lulu) limp in the morning because of stiffness, are really clumsy, can have high fever and skin rashes, and have swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck and other parts of the body (~~you humans are just freaky!)

Kids with arthritis can seem to be great for a while (this is called remission...yes like in cancer when it goes away) but then hit a time when everything comes back ( commonly referred to as a flare up).
Arthritis in children can cause eye inflammation and growth problems. It also can cause bones and joints to grow unevenly.

Lily doesn't just have arthritis. She has had seizures (Transient Alteration of Awareness), low muscle tone (hypotonia), developmental delay (means she doesn't meet a lot of milestones when she is supposed too), developmental dyspraxia (means she knows what she wants in her head but can't make her body do it...also called the clumsy kid disorder), a sleep disorder (means we can bark at the moon til the sun comes up), kidney reflux (means she has a LOT of bladder and kidney infections), sensory processing disorder (means her sensory highway in her brain is road blocked...she doesn't like being touched but loves to be in tight spaces), abnormality of gait (she walks funny...another area I can help her!), tibial torsion (her right foot turns inwards), idiopathic toe walking (she walks on her toes and there isn't a medical reason...she is much better at keeping the whole foot on the floor), asthma (she breaths funny too...lots of meds for this and one of them is a LOUD machine), lactose intolerant (she cant have dairy...bad cow! No Moo for you!), and has near sighted and astigmatism (yep you guessed it...funny eyes too...but pretty ones...and the arthritis can take the sight away with something called Uveitis).


So you see...my girl has lots of need for me and well I have need for her...and her sister...did I mention Zozo (aka Zoey...big sis) has some special needs of her own.

She has the same vision problems as Lulu but Zozo's is worse and also she has an 'wandering' eye...her special eye doctor said the eye isn't lazy (Amblyopia) yet but wants to be so we have to keep an 'eye' on her! Zozo has asthma, has digestive problems, auditory processing disorder (means she hears the words you say but can't always understand them...her brain doesn't tell her what you are saying), sensory processing disorder (she has an issue with food...what a bizarre human!), her left ear doesn't hear that great though she had surgery not long ago to fix her ear drum. Zozo's special doctors think she has Autism. She is super awesome no matter what and a GREAT big sister to Lily.

I love my little humans and want to be the best service dog I can be! I have a ways to go but I hope y'all will stay for the walk.

Peace Barks & Puppy Love
Beezus