The facility is part of Sutter Roseville Medical Center and has two in-patient units: brain-injured patients and spinal-injured patients. The patients here have stabilized enough to start a rehabilitation program after their medical issues have been treated at a hospital. Patients may have suffered strokes, been in a car accident, or have neurological disorders (Parkinson's, MS, etc.). The Recreation Therapist requested pet therapy visits through the WAGS program (the Sutter program I volunteer with through the hospital) to help the patients as they recover.
On Wednesday, we met with the Recreation Therapist to see what our dogs can do for the patients, decide on a schedule, etc. She loved that Hope could do the retrieve, tug, etc. and she thinks we can utilize her skills in our visits; this is perfect as I have really been wanting to find a program where I could do this with Hope as she loves doing the commands. We will be visiting twice a month with 3 dog/handler teams initially; the nice thing is that the visits will take place after work, so I won't have to miss work.
Hope was the only dog that was able to attend the meeting and the therapist asked me if I would be willing to visit one of the patients even though this was not something we had planned in advance. It was then that I got to witness the miracle of Hope that still has me beaming.
The patient was a young man and was in a wheelchair that was high, so I had her jump on a chair and do a "lap" on him. They said he hasn't spoken, was having trouble opening his eyes, and is learning to move his arms again. Not only did he make deliberate movements to pet Hope, he tried to say her name. Nothing came out, but you could tell he was trying. We could also tell that he was trying to open his eyes to see her. I was so proud of her because she just remained calm, laid her head on his lap on his arm and let him grab her foot. He was actually squeezing it a bit hard (I don't think he had a lot of control), and normally she is not a dog who likes to be messed with like that, but she was not bothered by it one bit and remained calm and steady. I guess I was concentrating so hard and didn't notice what was going on in the room when I heard some voices behind me. When I turned around I heard someone say that our audience was the patient's therapists who are working with him and were watching his interaction with Hope.
It really was such a special moment for me to know how much Hope has to offer; I couldn't be more proud of her. And she was so relaxed on his lap and her tail was wagging so I know she was enjoying herself too.
In some ways, Hope was like a CCI Facility dog on that visit. I spoke with the therapist about the possibility of them getting an actual Facility Dog as I think there could be so much they could do with a full-time dog there. So today, I dropped off some brochures as she seemed really interested in looking into it. When I was there, she happened to see me and saw that I had Hope (as we had done our visit at the hospital right before) and asked if I would be willing to visit the patient we visited with on Wednesday. Hope did another awesome job and this time, the patient's parents were there and were so grateful to Hope as they said how their son loves dogs.
I can't wait until we start our visits later this month, I think this is a perfect fit for Hope. Hope you ROCK!
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