The adventures of what?

Who are we?

My name is Liz. The other person in this photo is my husband James. James and I got married in July last year.

On November 4, 2004 James had a car accident in the car that we are pictured sitting in. He was lucky to escape with only a broken heel bone - however, this needed an operation and the insertion of a metal plate and screws to fix it.

The reason for this accident is that James has type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes. He also has a few other medical conditions that make it hard for him to control his BGLs (blood glucose levels). On the day of his accident he had done everything he should have, including eating a large bowl of pasta, having a regular soft drink and eating countless muesli bars, but his glucose level still dropped to the point that he didn't know what he was doing and eventually passed out behind the wheel, went across the double lines and into another car (the people in that car were also ok).

What is a hypo dog?

After this accident I was worried about him driving and about this happening again. As I have been involved in Puppy Raising for the NSW Guide Dog Association and I understand how much dogs can help and how easily they seem to sense how people are feeling, I searched for information about assistance dogs that would be able to help James when his BGL is low. I couldn't find anything in Australia. However, America has organisations dedicated to providing hypo alert dogs to diabetics. Hypo alert dogs give their owners warning before a hypoglycaemic episode (an episode of low BGL) therefore allow prompt treatment.

As we have just brought our own house, James and I started to think about getting a dog and training it ourselves. We will be moving into our house at the end of the year and so I looked around at a few breeds and thought about how I might go about training a dog. Eventually, after much searching I came across a link in a discussion forum on Reality Check (a site for young adults with diabetes) , with an email address for Lorraine, a founder of an organisation called Paws for Diabetics. The next day Lorraine rang me and we spoke for four hours!!!! During this time Lorraine told me about the dogs and what they do. We decided that we would like to get a Chinese Crested powder puff (Like Chino, who is pictured and who is a Paws for Diabetics hypo alert dog in training).

A few days later Lorraine rang me and told me that there were two dogs that would be having litters in a few weeks and she would let me know if there was a suitable dog born.

So now we are waiting and preparing. The litters should be born any day now and then in eight weeks we will hopefully be bringing home our new baby. So now all we have to do is buy all the paraphernalia that comes with owning a puppy and also move house! We are currently renting and are unable to have dogs in this house so we are moving back in with my parents for the next six months until we move to Tasmania and into our own house!