Sunday, June 28, 2009

a little bit of everything

Well so what's been going on since wednesday i hear you ask? there's been more walks, more ups and downs, but we will get there! i have orientation around the college which i will go to in september tomorrow with my cane, this is before i introduce the dog so i will then be able to direct her when she is introduced to the situation. Paul was up yesterday and left today, we went on a walk and got lost, adventures adventures! thankfully he didn't mind though! elsewhere, i took my guitar to get fixed on saturday and turns out they can't do anything so not sure what i will do about that! nothing much happening this week really, but i will write at some stage with news of how me and zonta are doing!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A clean up and an update!

hi everyone, forgive the date's on the posts before this one, as they were posted today also, i moved these posts from a wordpress account to this one, as i find blogger easier to use with jaws.
While i'm here i might as as well write something! This morning someone from guidedogs came, and observed a walk, says myself and zonta are doing fabulously well for this early stage!
I will take her out again soon and see if she will do as well as this morning!
bye for now...

All about me!

Hi Everyone and anyone who read’s this,For the purposes of this first post, let’s pretend that even people who know me have just stumbled across this blog in a search engion, and haven’t a clue who i am, for that reason i will be telling you a good bit about myself in this first post.My name is kerie, i’m 22 and i live in dublin Ireland, there are 5 in my family, my two parents, and a younger sister she’s 19, and a younger brother, he’s 12. I’ve lived in this house pretty much since I can remember. I was born in Majorca, spain, in march of 1987, i was 3 months premature, this resulted in me getting two much oxygen in an incubator, I subsequently developed an eye condition called ROP or, detached retinopathy of prematurity. This means that my retina’s detached as a result of my prematurity, and i lost my sight at 8 months. After this when i was 2, (as far as i remember anyway) I was taken to America on and off for about 2 years, for multiple operations, in which attempts were made to save my sight, but unsuccessful ones, and so it was that i was to experience life as a blind person.I started school when i was 4, i atended a school for the blind till i was 14, after which, due to closure of this particular school, i was mainstreamed, meaning i atended for the last 4 years, a school where there were sighted pupils, and i was the only blind person. This did come with it’s share of problems, lack of books, and people, both teachers and pupils, not really knowing what to do around me, led to a not very pleasant school experience for me, i wasn’t really accepted socially, and teachers in their efforts to show other students that i wasn’t and would not receive preferential treatment, treated me worse, at least i feel, than they would have been if they did the same things i did, not doing homework etc.After i made it through school with all it’s chalenges, i then embarked on a rehabilitation course, in which, after having received no what is called mobility, meaning training in how to get from one place to another safely , i received a lot of this training on this course,and was then able to travel around the city centre here, using at the time, a white cane. After this course, i then decided to go to colege, where i undertook the study of holistic therapies, and received at the end, again after many problems, 2 diplomas from I.T.E.C. standing for the international therapy examinational council, in both holistic massage, and indian head massage. I then sat around for the next year or so, as there was and is, no work in this industry at present. During this time, I was also in the process of applying for a guidedog, and the waiting semed to take ages, and there were many struggles to get to the point i’m at now, which is that I’m going for training with a beautiful golden lab/retriever at the end of may. I’m also going back to college, to do what’s called a PLC or post leaving certificate course in music performance after which i hope to do my degree, and turn my love and passion for music into some sort of career.In this blog you will find posts about all aspects of life, in the next few weeks, details of how training with my guidedog is going,will be posted here, plus lots of other things, so stay tuned!till next time…

An update on what's going on!

Well hey there, here i am again, with an update!Well, Zonta, that’s my guidedog’s name, she’s coming on thursday, the guidedog instructor will spend the evening here, leave Zonta here for the night, we will hopefully do some work on Friday, meaning me walking with Zonta, she will then go back with the instructor to cork, and i will then go down to start training on monday the 25th of may. Elseware this week, i have a meeting with the director of my college course on wednesday, and tomorrow i have a meeting with the doctor who made the prosthetic eyes, which i wear. Getting new ones, they really are long overdue hahahahaha! I will probably not write again till thursday, but i may write on wednesday, who knows… till next time…

Count down's on now!

So i said it might be thursday when i wrote again, but what with everything that went on last night, i just didn’t have time. Zonta arrived yesterday at about 2 o’clock, claire spent the afternoon in the house with us just getting her settled, and chatting to my family about different things, and answering any questions they had which i think was good, as they have not always been so kean on the idea. then at about 4 p.M. we fed zonta, then claire left. the night went absolutely fine, zonta settled down on a mat which claire brought for her and which i put in the corner of my room just fine, we wouldn’t have even known she was there! then this morning, we did a harnus walk, zonta is not really working for me yet, but that will come in the next two weeks, by the end of which, the transition should have been made. When the walk was done and we came into my garden, i bent down and gave her a big goodbye hug, and told her i would see her monday! i missed her almost as soon as she was gone! i leave for cork on the 9 A.M. train unless circumstances dictate otherwise, and i’m told i will be reunited with beautiful zonta again early that evening, and that we will have our first lecture of the class then.I will write on monday to tell how things are going!