A Great Visit In Charlotte

This weekend, we got to visit our Paws4people friends and the service dogs in Charlotte. It was a WONDERFUL weekend. Candace and Paul were perfect hosts. We had great meals and great fun visiting with one another. Kyria and Heidi made the 6 hour trip down from Morgantown WV with ELLIE and COLT. We had two meetings over the weekend to discuss commands that are most important to Amanda and to discuss fundraising. We got to see ELLIE and COLT show off their skills -- things like turning on and off a light switch, picking up things off the floor and bringing them back, speaking, bracing, and reading! Yes, ELLIE knows how to read. When Heidi (the trainer) would hold up a sign that said SIT or DOWN, ELLIE would read it and do what it said. That will be a big help to Amanda since her verbal skills are still developing.

We have started Amanda on a new medicine in hopes of finally getting off of the Topamax so that we can give her a better chance at developing stronger verbal skills. Topamax is associated with cognitive issues and speech problems, in addition to the kidney stone issue. Thankfully, all this goes away when she comes off Topamax and they are temporary effects that cause no permanent problems. Topamax was great when she was younger because it protected her brain from damage from the hundreds of seizures she was having and it was great at controlling her seizures once she had the surgery. Now, it will be good for her to try something different. Many children have huge gains in skills when they come off Topamax because they were able to learn fine while on it but just couldn't get out what they wanted to say. When the Topamax "fog" was removed, they jumped ahead in a big way. A friend of ours had this experience with her daughter. So, we are now jumping up on Trileptal with the hope of coming off Topamax and giving Amanda this opportunity think and speak more clearly. So far, she is tolerating the new medicine just fine. We will keep you posted on her progress.

Katie had a great time in Charlotte despite being a little disappointed that the snow didn't stick. She slept with her PJ's on backwards two nights in a row in hopes of snow deep enough to sled on (we took the boogy boards just in case given the forecast for snow). She had a great time playing with all of the dogs. In addition to ELLIE and COLT, KOJAK, and LANEY were also there. LANEY is Candace and Paul's dog and she works with kids in Candace's special needs classroom. KOJAK is the service dog for Ashley's mom and Katie kept him company a lot. She was very concerned that KOJAK might be sad with his people out of town so she made sure he knew he was still loved. They had a great time together.

We hope you are all fine and having a great day! God Bless!

Susan