November Profile

Nicole and Ella

Hi there! My name is Nicole Hird and I would firstly like to say thanks to PFD for all their support- what an amazing organization

I was given Ella (a gorgeous little white fluffy Chinese crested) on Apil 14^th 2007. I had dialysis on the morning she flew in from Adelaide so my mum went and picked her up from the airport. It was the longest dialysis session of my life- 4 hours seemed like 10!. She was home when I had finished dialysis and I fell in love as soon as I saw her- She was so tiny and so fluffy- I could almost hold her in the palm of my hand (one of my first thoughts was how was she going to alert me while I was asleep because she was too small to get up on the bed!)

It wasn’t very long before Ella started to alert my hypos- she stared to lick my hands furiously so I did a blood test and sure enough it was down so a few doggy treats for that effort. She was very quick to learn most of her obedience training and I think she is the smartest dog ever (even a few things that are just for fun like high and low fives).

I read about hypo alert dogs in diabetic living and thought I was a perfect candidate for a puppy as I have a mild brain injury resulting from a kidney/pancreas transplant that went wrong. The fear was that I would ‘forget’ what hypo symptoms were and would be in all sorts of trouble. I did have a carer for 20 hours per week in case of hypos but the problem with that is that she would not know what my blood sugars were doing because legally she is not allowed to test my blood (and certainly not give me a glucagon injection if the hypo was severe enough to warrant it) but now that I have Ella my mum isn’t so worried about leaving me unattended because Ella can tell if I’m having a hypo- sometimes even before I realise it. I used to have Jo (my carer) for 20 hours per week, now I have her for 12 hours per week- mainly after dialysis days as a way of getting home and to make sure I’m OK after treatment and on Mondays when I have all of my clinic and doctors appointments (where Ella sits outside and patiently waits with Jo for me to finish)..

I take Ella to dialysis with me where we go through the same routine almost every time- Ella sits in her bed and snoozes frpm 8:30 to 9:15 then she jumps on my lap for some morning tea (usually the corners of my sandwich!) then at 10:30 one of the nurses take her outside to do her business then she comes back inside and goes to bed again until I come off the machine- she is definitely a creature of habit!

All of my local shops are used to her now and I often get asked questions about her in the street and most people think it’s a marvellous idea and always give Ella praise telling her what a smartie she is and I would have to agree with them. One time I was sleeping through a hypo and Ella bit me so hard it woke me up and I could then treat it- what a star!

I’m glad to say she is big enough to jump up on the bed now and with her track record there is no fear of sleeping through a hypo anymore- in fact my mum has enough confidence to let me move out to the flat in the backyard- because of Ella- not only has she brightened up my life, she has saved it once or twice!