You're so lucky...

“You’re so lucky that…”

You can fill in the blank here. The most common phrase I hear is “you’re so lucky that you get to take your dog with you everywhere.”

Let me set the record straight. I love my dogs. However, I would never wish upon anybody the struggles and the challenges that come with the reason behind why I bring my dog everywhere I go. I have underlying chronic illness. Chronic disease, a disability, multiple spoons…whatever you wish to call it. At the end of the day, bringing my dog everywhere is not something I willing do. I have done it for the past six years because it is an issue of my safety, of the peace of mind for my friends to know that I will have some sort of assistance when I navigate this world alone, stubbornly so at times.

My dog is my service dog. I love both my pups dearly and yet one of them has a job. He comes with me because he is working, because he is making sure that if I have a syncope episode, I do not fall down a flight of stairs. Rather, if I have a syncope episode, at least I can lean on him or have him break my fall. And if I do lose consciousness, he is there to wake me up by licking my face (I know there are theories about splashing someone with cold water to wake them up and I’m not an expert here but what I do know is some kind of external stimulation has helped me regain consciousness when I have a syncope episode).

Regardless of what my service dog does to help me, he helps me mitigate the effects of my underlying health issues. Call it a disability, call it whatever you may (my extreme aversion to the word disability is for another post - I’ll spare you here), but at the end of the day, I do not take the decision lightly to elect to have a service dog instead of other types of support or help.

It is becuase I am stubborn or maybe because I have been fiercely independent my entire life that I refuse to accept help unless forced to. And that leads me to the original reason why I started this post: next time you have the urge to say to someone (or to me) “you’re so lucky you get to take your dog everywhere”, replace the second half of that phrase with “you’re so lucky that you have a disability or chronic disease” and see if that feels the same.

“You’re so lucky that you get to park closer to the store.”

“You’re so lucky that you get to skip the lines at the theme park.”

“You’re so lucky that you get extra time on your exams and schoolwork.”

“You’re so lucky that…”

Pause.

Does it still sound so appealing?