By Debbie Surman Many of us enjoy a good mystery, but sometimes that mystery can become a life-changing event leading us in a direction we never thought possible. Not long ago, Ema experienced one such conundrum that would have her feeling like her life would never be the same. Ema is a graduate school student, single mom, homeowner, soccer player, artist, and founding board member of an organization focused on empowering women and non-binary individuals through woodworking. For reasons unknown, she had an attack in 2021 that brought to light some underlying symptoms of vestibulopathy, thoracic outlet syndrome, and foraminal …
Feature Stories
Facility Dog Clayton Works to Keep the Stress at Bay
The pandemic has created extreme stress for a number of professionals. The EMS paramedics with M Health Fairview are no exception. Kevin Kane, the Supervisor of M Health Fairview Ambulance Operations, said, “We help people and sometimes we forget that we need to take care of ourselves. Specifically, in the last couple of years with everything that’s been going on, it’s been unrelenting.” So Kevin looked into a unique coping mechanism—an assistance dog. Learning that M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital would be placing Can Do Canines dogs in their setting, Kevin wanted to follow their lead. When Can Do …
Demi Offers Extremely Helpful Benefits
“It’s been a very emotionally challenging eight years as a mother,” admits Tiffany, mother of not only 8-year-old Lucas, who has autism, but also two younger children, including another who has autism. Tiffany explains that Lucas struggles with his emotions. “[His] brain tells him everything to the extreme, sad, mad, nervous, even excited; it’s heightened.” As he has grown up, Lucas has had a tendency to do what is called “elopement” if something would upset him. Tiffany says, “He would just take off running because he wanted to avoid those feelings.” If it happens while they’re on their way somewhere, …
Volunteer Helps Make Events a Success
Since 2016, Laurie Gillis has been an enthusiastic dynamo of a volunteer for Can Do Canines. She says, “I found out about Can Do Canines when I adopted my dog, Barkley, and was looking for somewhere to take him after doing obedience training to see if we could handle ourselves. I heard on the morning news that the Woofaroo was happening that day and came over.” Laurie learned that we train Diabetic Assist Dogs, and that struck a special chord with her; a childhood friend had recently died in her sleep from hypoglycemia. Laurie decided Can Do Canines was a …
Rui Rui Continues Advocacy Efforts with Second Mobility Assist Dog
Rui Rui, a first-year college student, was born with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), which causes a progressive loss of muscle tissue and touch sensation across various parts of the body. This means that Rui Rui’s balance is affected, and she cannot walk for long distances without the aid of an electric scooter or wheelchair. Rui Rui doesn’t have a lot of strength or stamina in her legs and wears braces to help her walk. In 2016, Can Do Canines paired her with Mobility Assist Dog Tango, who recently retired. With Rui Rui planning on heading to college in the fall, she …
Andy Brings Steve New Hope
Steve served in the military during the Vietnam War and then worked in construction for 35 years. The noises from both of those experiences contributed to gradual hearing loss. His audiologist even speculated that Steve’s cold-water swims in Lake Superior–an annual ritual–may have contributed to the condition as well. So when he would need to remove his cochlear implants at night and hearing aids were no longer doing the job, he left himself vulnerable to sounds left unheard. His wife, Margaret, says, “I used my outdoor voice a lot. It was exhausting.” Yet, beyond basic communication effectiveness, safety became a …
Camilla Bends George’s Life Toward a More Independent Direction
“I can do weird things with my joints.” This statement by George is not a source of pride, but rather, a source of pain…real, physical pain. George, who is 18, has a type of hypermobility spectrum disorder, possibly Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. The challenges are related to his body’s connective tissue. He explains, “The ligaments around my joints just are super stretchy. There’s nothing holding them in place.” George’s struggles got worse as he got older, with hip and knee dislocations happening several times a day. Three years ago, he began using a wheelchair but says he didn’t expect the transition to …
JodiAnn’s Second Chance at Independence with Alvin
By Erin Reyes Seventeen years ago, at the age of 45, JodiAnn’s independent life as she knew it changed overnight. She experience a brain stem stroke, leaving her with balance issues that caused frequent falls—one that even resulted in a broken hip. For her own safety, her doctors and her children recommended that she no longer live alone. Her daughter moved in, and just like that, her sense of independence was gone. “I was never allowed to be alone,” explains JodiAnn. “My kids worried about me a lot, so I had to live with my daughter. She went with me …
Persistence Pays Off with Diabetes Assist Dog Gracie
“Persistent” is one way Deanna describes her canine partner, Gracie. Since that trait is especially desirable for a Diabetes Assist Dog, Gracie was cast in the perfect role. Certified in 2014, this team has become completely in tune with each other. One way they’ve done this is through dog agility training—something they began within the first year together. Deanna says she started agility work with Gracie so the two of them could become more cohesive. “The stronger the bond, the better the alerting,” she asserts. “I had to learn her language and she had to learn my language.” The two …
Hearing Assist Dog Raven is Music to Megan’s Ears
By: Erin Reyes A ringing doorbell. A dinging oven timer. A chirping smoke alarm. Someone calling our name. These are sounds many of us take for granted every day – sometimes, we even treat them as a nuisance. But for Megan, a 27-year-old student at UW-Oshkosh, they are mostly a non-issue…because she can’t hear them. Megan was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, a craniofacial birth defect in which some facial features – in Megan’s case, her ear canals – never fully develop. As a result, Megan has grown up with profound hearing loss. She first learned about Can Do Canines …
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