Pool Update & Fighting a Dog for a Joystick

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So, following up on my last post… I may or may not have bombarded that particular council with online enquiries and phone calls👀

BUT!! finally — progress.

I received a response today. While the information I’d originally been given was true, there had been no attempt to fix the issue or treat it with any urgency.

The manager I spoke with wasn’t even aware of the situation and had to go away and check everything himself. Honestly, it’s frustrating when accessibility concerns get met with a quiet “meh, not my problem” attitude😔

But — credit where it’s due.  The conversation that followed was productive.

I expressed my concerns around independence, about swimming lessons coming up later this year, and how accessibility can’t be something addressed at the last minute. Families like ours don’t get the luxury of scrambling for solutions a week before an activity starts. Planning ahead isn’t what I do for fun (I don't know what I do for fun anymore 😂) it's just something that feels like second nature because I'm always the one who has to deliver the bad news. 

He’s now committed to keeping me updated on possible solutions and is even exploring options for installing a full-size change table. I offered our support and suggested he connect with Kaedyn’s school to better understand what staff can and can’t reasonably accommodate, and to speak with therapists who understand the very real, very individual needs of kids like ours.
So… here’s hoping🤞🏽

In other news, I genuinely thought I was going to have to cut one of Jess’s dogs open tonight.

That little shit jumped all over Kaedyn’s wheelchair, ripped the joystick straight off and decided it was apparently the greatest snack it had ever seen and he just had to have it!

 Next minute I’ve got my hand jammed in this dog’s mouth, wrestling it to stop it from swallowing a very expensive piece of assistive technology whole.

I was panicking while this damn dog absolutely believed this was the best decision it had ever made...

It was intense. Truly a moment where I questioned how my life ended up here...with my fist down my best friends dogs throat 🙃

The joystick has now been washed three times and scrubbed like it’s about to go into surgery, but Kaedyn is still not convinced it’s clean enough and frankly… I don’t blame him.

This solidifies exactly why I'm a cat person... BELLA WOULD NEVER!!!

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