Our Buddy Kai

How this week has been is beyond words.  It has been tiring.  It has been enlightening.  It has been so many things.  Our trainers Katie and Cheri are awesome.  We learned so much from them.  Kai is so sweet, calm and eager to learn.  He has also been an alerting machine.  In less than a week he has alerted to Brad and then came and alerted to me.  He was saying, Momma, Daddy is High or Low, we need to fix him!  When Brad's sugars are out of range and we show him the meter, Kai goes NUTS!  He's like YES, that's what I have been trying to tell you!!

We have been doing Public Access Training a good chunk of the week.  This way Brad can get a feel for having him with him while in the store.  He is doing so well.  Kai really loves his daddy!

Just the other night Brad woke up at 2am.  His blood sugar was in the 400 range.  So he decided to take a walk.  When he got back at almost 4am, as soon as he walked through the door, Kai went nuts!  He just started moving all over the bed and acted like he could not find a comfy spot.  Then, he started to lick my face.  I told Brad that we needed to check.  He was 98 with insulin still on board.  GOOD LOW KAI!! 

Sure all of this is hard work.  He does not catch every single low or high, but he is doing REALLY well.  This is a process as I told the trainers.  I totally understand that.  He is not completely trained for two years BUT he is already doing his job!  Can you believe that!

During the week while the trainers were here, we met with the Des Peres Fire Dept.  Cheri and Katie explained to them what Kai would do and that in the next couple of years we were going to be doing training for Kai dialing 911 with a special device.  If Brad drops too low and won't wake up, Kai will call for help.  My jaw dropped on that one.  He was so chill the whole time.  Sabrina thought it was neat to see the ambulance up close but mostly played while Daddy, Katie and Cheri talked to the fire fighters/EMTS's.

Here are just some really cute pics that I took of Kai!

What a day this has been!

Today was an amazing day!  Delivery was great.  Kai is everything we hoped he would be.  Sure, I am exhausted.  Sure, it feels like bringing home a newborn.  But he caught two lows today.  Betcha didn't think I was going to say that.  Both times Kai got the hiccups and we checked and sure enough, Brad was under 80. 

Is this going to be a piece of cake, heck no.  Are we afraid of the challenge, HECK NO!!  This is a process.  There are going to be good days, bad days and everything in between.  We are going to take the good with the bad and realize that Kai is not going to be fully trained for two years.  This is a process.  A process we fully welcome with open arms.

Here are some pics during the day today:

He is already amazing!  Tomorrow is going to be just as awesome.  I cannot wait.  We are meeting with the Des Peres FD and going to do Public Access Training.  I think the bed is calling us!!

Big Week!

Here we are.  Two days from the arrival of Kai.  We are so excited.  It is amazing how much we have to prepare.  We need to have baby gates to make sure Kai does not get where we don't want him to go.  Then there is food, toys, a cage for him to sleep in, bed, and all the other stuff doggies need to have a good life.  We are also going to have to get a Kai "bag" for when we go out into public and he had an accident.  He will only be 16 weeks old after all.

All of these things we were so excited to buy.  He is going to be such an amazing addition.  We cannot wait to meet our trainer Ms. Cheri Campbell.  She is the lead trainer at Warren Retrievers.  You can tell she just loves those dogs so much.  That is the best quality you can ask for in a trainer.  

We hope you can all attend our fundraiser Cocktails for Kai on September 8th.  Please just let us know you are coming so we can make sure there is plenty of drinks and food!!

I will post several times this week with I am sure a TON of photos of this new little guy.  So please stay tuned.  The amazing things that he will do will all be reported here.  Also, if you are thinking about getting a Diabetic Alert Dog, send me an email at fightingtype1@yahoo.com.  I will be happy to answer any questions.

If you wish to make a donation to Bradley and Kai, send me an email and I will be happy to help you through it.  You can also find information in the FAQ's section of this blog.

See you all this week!!!

Tiffany

11 Days...

Isn't it when you really want something time just seems to stop ?  In 11 days, just 11 days our lives are going to change.  11 days from now Brad will gain freedom.  11 days from now I will learn what it is like to not worry so much.  11 days from now Sabrina will have a furry black lab little brother.

It is like when you are kid and you are counting down to Christmas.  I remember I had a Santa Clause face from 7up or Coca Cola (can't remember which one) and you had to glue a cotton ball to the face of Santa for each day in December.  I remember looking at it and thinking, UGH, it is never going to get here!  There is all this excitement and joy because, holy cow, Santa is coming.  This is how it feels waiting for this little miracle.  11 Days feels SO FAR AWAY!  I know it will be here soon enough and the hard work of training him will kick in, but we are ready for it.

Do you know what it is like to worry about your grown husband driving?  Or worrying that his blood sugar is dropping while he is watching your two year old?  This is what diabetes does.  It took away Brad's ability to do some of the things he loves.  You can really take driving for granted until you can't do it because your family is so afraid of what might happen.

This is why 11 days is so amazing to us and it seems like a lifetime to get here.  I have a flood of emotions right now.  None of which are fear. 

In 11 Days, our lives are going to change for ever.

Thank you to Dan Warren, Cheri Campbell, the other trainers that I have not met yet and all the Warren Retriever families.  For everything.  For the hope, for Kai, for all you do, and mostly Brad's life.

Love from the bottom of my heart,

Tiffany Bates

Cocktails for Kai

We happily invite you to an evening of friendship and support in honor of Kai, Brad's new diabetic alert dog.

Kai will be delivered to our family on August 28, 2012, and we are so blessed to have the opportunity to begin experiencing the changes he will make in Brad's life.

Sharing our news with you is but a part of the support we are asking you to help us with.  Significant funds are necessary to insure that Kai does remain a family member.  He will definitely be loved and appreciated for the constant assistance he will give to Brad's very brittle Type 1 diabetes.  One means of support will be participation in a silent auction as well as voluntary donations which are all tax deductible.

We hope we can count on you and that you will share with us appetizers and drinks on the evening of Saturday, September 8 at 6:30 at Greenbriar Hills Country Club, 11225 Big Bend Blvd., Kirkwood, Mo. 314-822-3011.

Let us thank you in advance for helping our family, and, of course, mostly Brad, to achieve what will become a new and wonderful way of life.

Please RSVP to 314-402-5248 by August 31 and we look forward to an evening of warmth and inspiration because, until there is a cure, there is a dog!

The Bradley Bates Family

Delivery date and a tough weekend

We received the BEST news this weekend!  Cheri Campbell emailed us our delivery date!  September 5th was to be the date that we finally got to meet our little guy.  But last night as we were driving home, Brad got a phone call from Cheri.  They needed to change our delivery date, to August 29th!  We are so excited!  Sure no problem, we can handle getting Kai a week earlier!  I am sure this date might change again, but that's OK.  Good things come to those who wait, right??

The funny thing is I got a message through Facebook from Cheri.  The email address she had for us was not the right one.  She said she was trying to get a hold of us to schedule our delivery and she needed to know if any dates were bad in the Aug/Sept time frame.  I told Brad very excitedly about the message.  I looked at him and said "There isn't anything in that time frame that we can't change is there?!"  He started cracking up.  Of course not.  What could be more important than Kai coming?  Absolutely nothing! 

This was one of many awesome things that happened this weekend.  Brad's family was in from out of town and we were all enjoying the company of each other.

This leads me to the tough part of the weekend.  Brad's blood sugars were SUPER high.  We are talking consistently 300 - 400 range.  He has never run highs like that consecutively for multiple days.  It was very troubling to him.  It made him really angry and he feels helpless because he would give a correction for the high and it would not budge.

I can tell you it is tough being the wife of a Type 1.  Everyone hears about the highs and lows and what they do to a diabetic.  But there are also the emotional pieces of diabetes that you don't hear about.  The "why do I have this disease", "why am I running high when I haven't eaten anything", "are they ever going to find a cure", "am I going to die because of this disease?" 

So no only do you have to deal with treating the lows or highs, you have to help pull them out of this thinking.  It can be very tough and depressing.  Brad had so much anger this weekend and we talked about it.  He was upset because of the highs.  I cannot blame him.  As we talked through it all, I told him that he is not going to die because of one weekend where his blood sugars were high.  He just looked at me and said "You don't understand how I am feeling.  You don't know what it is like for me on my side.  I am the one who has this."  I can understand how he feels.  I can even sympathise, but he is right, I don't have diabetes and I don't know how he is feeling. 

Kai will not only be helping with tighter glycemic control, he is going to be helping combat those feelings of hopelessness, that there is never going to be a cure.  This is how amazing these dogs are.  This is why I am willing to raise $20,000 for Kai.  This is why Kai is so important to us and we haven't even met him yet.  He is going to help us fight back against this silent disability. 

I have started calling Kai our super hero with paws.  He is going to be a super hero for Brad.  Always looking out for him, loving him and supporting him through it all.  I want this for Brad so much and I am just so happy it is happening.

Tiffany

Meet Kai!

Cheri Campbell posted pics of our new little man last night!  We cannot wait to welcome him in August/September.  He is 8 weeks in these pictures.

Isn't he adorable!!  Cannot wait to squeeze this little guy!  He will be a little bigger once we get him, but he will still be just a baby dog.

Here are pics of Kai's Parents - These pictures are the property of Warren Retrievers.  Photographer is Dwight Dike.  All rights reserved.

Jackie - Kai's mom

Tonic - Kai's Dad

We cannot wait to welcome him home.  I am sure Sabrina will love him too.

Stay tuned for more updates.  We are hoping to get a couple of fundraisers scheduled as well!

Tiffany