Today was a very busy day! We went to a museum with Brad’s family, which I will make a blog entry about when the pictures are all edited. When we got home, as I was unloading my wheelchair, Sabrina called. Her doctors had advised her to go to the hospital for some treatment, and her husband was’t able to be there with her. So I turned around and headed out to be with her.
The hospital was in Waxhaw, about 30 minutes away. Luckily it is a small hospital so parking was easy—I shared an access aisle with Sabrina’s van!
I rolled into the ER and was approached by an extremely nervous security guard. He had a paper in his hand. He was obviously uncomfortable and afraid of my reaction when he told me that he was really sorry, but he had to ask me two questions. I smiled encouragingly at him and said “no problem!”.
He started to read the first ADA question, but flubbed it, so I finished the question for him and then answered it. He then asked the second question and I answered it. He apologized again for having to ask the questions, and I told him it really wasn’t a problem at all, and I appreciated that he had the exact right wording.
Then I talked with the ER desk person. I told him I was there to see Sabrina. He said he’d have to call back and ask about the dog. I said he’s a service dog. The man said “I know, but room 5 has another dog in it”. I said I knew that, and that my dog was friends with that dog. He said he still wasn’t sure, so he called to the back to ask them if it was OK to have two service dogs in the ER. The people in the back weren’t sure either, so they had to go ask Sabrina if it was OK that I brought Felix back to her room.
I was laughing pretty hard when they finally brought me back! Sabrina explained to me when I got back there that the staff had no idea what to do about Indy when she arrived, and asked her to leave Indy in the waiting room while she got treated in the emergency department! So I think that after Sabrina got there, everyone boned up on service dog policy and they wanted to make absolutely sure they got the second service dog right LOL!
I was so happy to see Sabrina! It has been over a month since we’ve seen each other! And Felix and Indy were very happy to see each other, too. I hung out and chatted with Sabrina while she got her treatment. Felix has been in a hospital where I got my MRI, but not in a room where someone’s in bed and people keep coming in and out to do things, machines beeping, etc. He did SO WELL! I got a picture of him in my lap and Indy the Golden Retriever on the hospital floor.
We hung out for about two hours, chatting away and passing the time well with each other. Every person that entered the room was surprised to see two service dogs in the room, but most people got over their shock pretty well and just treated Sabrina like any other patient.
Eventually the treatment they gave her worked, and she was discharged. The guy who came to discharge us was also shocked about the dogs. He called them pets and kept talking about them as pets. I so wanted to say to him that our dogs are NOT pets, they are service animals! But I didn’t want to mess up Sabrina’s care, so I kept my mouth shut. Apparently she also really wanted to say the same things!
We left the building and hung out outside waiting for Russ to come pick Sabrina up. The temperature was really nice to be sitting outside. After about half an hour, we could see that Russ was about 10 minutes away, and it was getting darker. So in order for me to get home before dark, I went ahead and left. Luckily our friend Chris called just then, so Sabrina wasn’t waiting entirely alone!
I made it home just in time before dark, and Felix was so happy to get his dinner! Now we’re going to really try hard to relax before bed! Good thing I don’t have to leave the house again until Tuesday!