Trouble

Yesterday was the first time we were actually given a hard time about taking Natalie anywhere with us. We went to see Clydee Peeling's Reptiland up near Williamsport PA. We bought our tickets and no problem. Went in and watched the venomous exhibit they did and Carlisle was psyched beyond belief to see a cobra up close. Natalie wasn't so much and didn't like it when they brought out the milksnake for everyone to touch. Anyways they have a little cafe similar to a Subway. We go in and order and this lady comes at us like a bat out of hell, saying she was sure animals even service animals were not allowed in the food prep area. My wife politely said that yes they were. She got all stuffy. I replied Maam, that service dogs are allowed in the area and could show her the state law which is on the back of Natalie's tags. She stormed off and said she was going to go find out. We ordered our food in the meantime. We decided to eat outdoors and in that time another manager lady was there. My wife asked if there was a problem and explained to her that it embarrassed her, me and Carlisle. She shrugged it off. You can read the review my wife did if you google clyde peeling reptiland and read her review.

Overall this experience has been everything we had hoped it would be and are grateful to have Natalie in our lives.

We did it

After two and one half weeks we have finished our certification to be able to take Natalie out in public. The staff at SSD have been so kind so helpful and we are honored to have worked with them. It was a course that was very intensive for all of us. Carlisle was not one for the classroom lectures, I can't blame him, if I was seven I wouldn't want to be in a class either.

Natalie has been very wonderful to us already and we have seen some change. The other day we were traveling back from speech therapy and Carlisle wanted to get Pizza Hut. that usually means I go out and pick up an order. he had other plans and instead wanted to go to the restaurant to eat. We never and I mean never go to restaurants because Carlisle never sits still long enough to be able to eat. We were skeptical but we went and tried it. It could not have gone any better. he sat there and checked on natalie all meal long and she kept his attention. My wife and I were able to have a conversation which doesn't happen that often, all because of Carlisle's focus on natalie.

I can not wait to see where this new chapter in our lives will be taking us. I 100% know this will open doors that were closed to us before.

Thank you all at SSD, thank you Mrs. Fierer, thank you Cindy, thank you Miss Susan for working with us for the past two weeks, and thank you Alicia for raising such a wonderful dog.


Joey, kate & Carlisle

Day 3

Day 3 of service dog team training down. It went well today. I had to teach my wife some commands that I had learned on my own yesterday. It was odd being the teacher instead of the teachee. She did great although she thought I was being hard on her, I just to get things right so we don't screw up all the hard work that has been put into Natalie by Alicia and others. Carlisle did great with her, he got to go over some commands with her like lap, and bump. he loved the bump, it was like a shark bumping something he said. She also did a search and retrieval of Carlisle, she found him each time. We are so excited for this life changing experience. There is never enough thank yous to go around.

Monday the 15th we begin our team training. Carlisle is so excited to start the training and see Natalie again. He has been talking about having Natalie sleep with him, go to Chocolate World and meet his guinea pigs.

Susquehanna Service Dogs, the organization who provides the dogs

Natalie and her trainer Alicia

Barely

Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

We got the call on Wednesday that Jonathan has been matched with a dog. The dog is a black lab and it's name is Barely. Now they must train the dog to the specifications/characteristics we request. We have some anxiety issues, so the main thing we are training right away is transitioning issues. This is very exciting for us.Now to raise the balance of the funds and we are set.

Good News

Wow, been way too long since an update here. Last Wednesday my wife and son had a meeting with the actual dogs themselves. It went really well and finally hope to be placed with a dog from that meeting. If we are not matched this time we will have another meeting in November to meet more dogs. Once a match is made then the training of the dog to Jonathan's specific target areas will begin. It is finally starting to happen and is exciting after a long wait.

Stomach problems. Wish we could get this problem cured for Jonathan. Nothing seems to work to get him to go poop. We've changed diets and got nowhere, we've added just about everything available to his drinks to help him and got nothing. I was surprised when the stuff that is used on being before getting a colonoscopy had nop effect on him. We are at our wits end on finding anything suitable. He gets uncomfortable during the course of the day and goes and sits in a corner to squat down so that he won't poop.

Jonathan made his TV debut last night and now the station has the video up.

Jonathan & my wife will be on the News Tonight

The local station channel 27 was filming the other day at where Jonathan does his therapeutic horseback riding at CATRA. They showed up because the lady who runs it Shirley is the only place like it in the US uses dogs as well. It is really a spectacular program and the people up there are great.My wife said Jonathan did great and since he was the first one there got a bunch of film taken of him. So anyone local can watch it tonight on Channel 27.

Joey

Today I was able to make contact with Susquehana Service Dogs again. It had been awhile since I heard from them. I left some messages and never got the return call. Basically we are in a holding pattern right now in regards to receiving a dog. I was told we are about #35 on the list. I don't remember them saying it would take this long to do this. It was basically come up with the funds and we will be able to place a dog with your family. These are the times when a dog would come in handy in dealing with Jonathan. He has been diagnosed with what a psychiatrist called ODD(oppositional defiance disorder). Exactly what it sounds like. Along with this he is very anxious about things and having the dog in my opinion would help to relieve some of these anxieties.

The good news is that he starting to get more body control. He is able to decide when he needs to pee in the potty. Which is awesome, and now wants to see the mens rooms so he can pee in the urinals. We are working on his encopresis, although after seeing two gastro specialists and them giving the same suggestions it is frustrating. We tell them the problems, what he has been given to help pass stool (we even had stuff that people are given before being given a colonoscopy) and that has still not cleared him up. I wish there was an easy answer to control this. Still the two gastro doctors have suggested absolutely nothing new to us and has us at wits end.

Diet change was not successful as well for us either. We had gone to a gluten free (no wheat diet). We did this for about 3 months and saw no changes except a higher food bill. The first night we took him off this diet he ate as much pizza as I have ever seen him eat before. The diet was tough for him, as he is a finnicky eater as is and to take away some foods that we was accustomed to was not easy. Going out to places like Chuckee Cheese was a challenge as he was wanting to eat pizza but we always had to keep him to the salads and have a special surprise. It just came to the point where it was easier to avoid the place that he loved all together.

Fund raising has been doing well for us. We have a little over $1,450 dollars in Jonathan's account. I would like to thank all that have donated to his cause.

Joey

Been awhile since an update. Jonathan started a introduction kindergarten program at a public community center near the house. This is the first time for him being in a school type setting. The first day went really well for him. My wife was basically outside the door the whole time, making sure everything was going well for him. He had a good time and told me school was fun. There was also another child there who was on the autism spectrum. Jonathan and him became good friends.We were trying to get Jonathan TSS support before classes started but were not able to get a person yet for him. The next day my wife took him for school the director pulled my wife and the other childs mother aside and said that they could not return to class because the teachers could not handle him. Big mistake because the other childs mother is a lawyer (her website no joke was bulldog justice), her husband is a lawyer as well. Wrong person to tell that their child can't come to a public facility. After talking/screaming for awhile the director relented and said the kids could stay. I think this was decided only after the lawyer mom said that the YMCA just settled a case like this for $120,000.

Long story short, Jonathan is welcome to attend classes and this is something that my wife and I both want for him. Although I can't describe in words the pain we feel when we see a child picking on Jonathan. It brings tears to my eyes thinking how cruel children can be. The assistant teacher was very good though in putting a stop to the one child and then after class making a point to talk to his mother.

I'm still trying to put together our poker run, hopefully I'll have more details soon. Also again thank you to all those who have made a donation, and a special thank you to a 7 year old boy who has no idea how much his donation means to me. I know Dad will be getting a kickass toy for you.

Joey

Hershey park was great on Wednesday. For the first time Jonathan told me something was awesome,the Super Dooper Looper. I was surprised he was big enough to ride it but he measured up and was able to ride it. The really cool thing they do at Hershey for kids and others with disabilities is to let us enter through the exit line. For the more popular rides we had to get a boarding pass. A boarding pass allowed me to go through the exit and get a time in the future to come back and Jonathan would be allowed on at that time. We cut people off all day long for rides. 99% of the people were perfectly fine with that except for 2 older guys on the watersoaker coaster. The yelled at me and said they had been waiting for an hour to ride and weren't giving up their seats for anybody. Oh well, the next car comes by in a minute so it wasn't all bad. We rode the rides from open to close of the park. Jonathan even told me that the rides were not closed yet, even though they were turning the lights off. I'd say he had a spectacular time. All told when we tried to remember all the rides we went on, we counted 43 rides. It was a wonderful day and I'm so happy I could make this happen for him. The excitement was so great for Jonathan that Wednesday morning I had to go to work for a few hours, my wife called at 8:30 and said he was n his car seat and ready to go. The people of Hershey were great and I would like to say Thank you, you helped make Jonathan a very happy and special boy for the day.

Sunday we were at my Mom's house and kept hearing a steam whistle. She lives near the railroad tracks, but this one was off in the distance. Jonathan being a huge train lover wanted to go find the steamie. We ended up here . Jonathan absolutely loved it, although the steam whistle up close was a little much for him. Also going on was a classic car show. Within the past 4 months Jonathan has become so anxious about knowing every car name, especially when we are driving. The car show made it very easy for me to name them since there was an announcer. Reaaly wish that announcer was with me in the car sometimes to call out ones I miss.

Tomorrow is a big day for us. We are headed to Hershey Park. Jonathan was very excited to find out today about the trip. I showed him numerous youtube POV (point of view) videos of the roller coasters he could ride. He was estatic. When we take our trips to amusement parks we found out that our doctor could give us a letter that we take to the customer relations people who in turn give us a special pass for Jonathan. The pass allows for Jonathan to enter through the exit and get on the rides first. I will let you know how the day went tomorrow evening, only worry is too much vestibular stimulation.


And finally a very huge and grateful thank you for those who have donated.

Paperwork from the IRS came to the house on Saturday. Went by the bank this morning and have his fund officially setup The info on it is :

Commerce Bank
5032 Simpson Ferry Road
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
account # is 537477341
Account is listed under Service Dog for Jonathan Calabrese

Thank you everyone for listening to our story and donations. I will post this evening about our weekend at Williams Grove Speedway for the Steam engine gathering they had.

Saturday my wife woke up feeling horrible. AS the day progressed she got worse and worse. Earlier in the day Jonathan and I went to my office and the volunteer fire department from Penbrook was chopping up and old state body we had here. They had their fire truck here so Jonathan for about an hour took a personalized tour of the fire engine. He was in heaven. As for my wife she asked that I take her to the hospital. So I loaded up Jonathan and all his new toys (got a little construction set from Rite Aid on Saturday morning) and headed off to the hospital. She ended up having a kidney infection as well as pneumonia. I couldn't have asked for a better behaved little guy than Jonathan that day. He was awesome, we played construction site on the counter for hours. We watched a little bit of drag racing as he loves cars on the TV. He also took good care of my wife by pulling up a chair on wheels and stating he was the doctor. He didn't want to leave her side. Eventually around 7Pm I got him to go with me to the local Taco bell to get something to eat, I knew he had to have been hingry since we plowed through our Oreo cakesters that we had brought along as a snack. About the time we had gotten back from our food stop they were ready to discharge my wife. She really was a trooper and I was proud of both her and Jonathan. As a special treat for him being so great on Saturday we took him to Toys R'Us to get a planet Hero action figure. He was pumped so we got the high end model spaceship. All and all it was a great weekend except for my wife getting sick. I had forgotten to mention that Friday we also took a trip to Lake Tobias after his speech therapy session, he was on his game that day as for the first time they gave him a certificate for being so well behaved. His favorite partof Lake Tobias was feeding the bison as they come right up to the bus which is a school bus with the top cut off. Still waiting for our paperwork from the IRS to get our fund setup, hopefully it is here this week.

My wife had to take Jonathan to the dentist this morning. We thought he might have a cavity because he was biting on things. He can not tell us if he does, but he responded yes when we asked if his mouth hurt. SO for the first time ever he went back with the hygentist today all by himself. Turns out he was getting his 5 year old molars and he was very excited t learn that he was growing a new tooth. He named his new tooth special.

Went and met with our bank on Friday. I setup an EIN number with the girl there. Once we get confirmation back from the IRS that our correct EIN was what was given to us online, we can setup our fund for Jonathan. I am very excited to keep the ball moving forward on our project. We are looking to try and do a poker run on the 27th of October. This date was set aside because living in Penn State country I wanted to have as many people here while not interfering with their home games. As I get more details of putting this together I will keep everyone informed.

Saturday night we had to spend in the hospital ER with Jonathan. He has been diagnosed with Encopresis. Basically he has hard stool and doesn't like going to the bathroom. Unfortunately he was so backed up that even enemas were having no effect on him. The doctor had to go and digitally remove the matter. It hurts so much to see him in so much pain. But this was the best thing for him after seeing the X-Ray and seeing all the matter in his colon. He is feeling great again and I hope that with making some dietary changes we never ever have to go through that again. Nothing like having a wide awake child at 2AM. I was glad Taco Bell was open because he was starving after having the fecal matter removed.