Kingsley did great on the longer than usual car ride (he has the routine down pat - load in van by the ramp, sit to be tethered, then lay by the bench quietly until after we park, open ramp and untether him!) and only took about 15 seconds to acclimate to the load city sounds he found himself surrounded by once there. This was easily his first trip into a real city. I was really proud of him for getting over the newness quick enough to potty on cue and continue walking to the hospital. He had NO problem entering the new elevator, and within one or two floors, we found ourselves PACKED with a few doctors, a stroller and a teenager with an iPod on. He kept himself tucked against my chair and calmly waited for the 5th floor stop. We didn't have an overly long wait for the first part of the appointment, but he did awesome with my mom leaving us to find a bathroom (stayed with me and didn't try to follow her) and did a few greetings perfectly.
Our next part of the day was my Pulmonary Function Tests (PFT's), which are a routine part of my hospital visits and something very important for Kingsley to be comfortable during. He - slept through them. They're done with a few big machines that suck and blow air loudly, and obviously I interact with them in order to test my lung function. The first time I had my lab there, she needed re-cued a few times to settle and lie down but Kingsley watched me in a down for a few minutes before confidently falling asleep for the remaining tests.
After that we waited about 30 minutes to see the doctors, so we snapped a picture with the Pulmonary elephants.
Our appointment was supposed to be routine, just a check up and confirmation of stability - which I why Kingsley joined me to this particular appointment. To my surprise though, my PFT's weren't so hot, so we spent a lot of time going over things closely, changing medications around a little, and setting up a sleep study to ensure that my Bi-Pap settings are still correct. Kingsley slept right through the entire 2 hour appointment, while nurses and social workers came and went, while I had my physical, and everything else. At the end I gave everyone permission to pet him and he cracked me up - he had no desire to meet any of them and looked at me as if to say "I'm working -hello?!"
On our way out we stopped by a statue of a Panda out front of the Wood Center. Kingsley was a bit worried about him, so we did some training around him and a few walk by's before heading home. Although we have 2 dog statues here at my house and his groomer has a dog statue at her salon, we'll be sure to visit lots of statues in the next few weeks to help him learn they're not so scary. I just love the Panda pictures though! He's silly and didn't have a huge fear response, just a wary and worried response. Until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment