Doing His Job Well

Today found us heading to the hospital for a very lengthy procedure for Jeremy. They had to do so many blood draws we opted to let them put a temporary port in Jeremy's hand to help keep the pain down. Banyan never ceases to amaze me at how in-tune he is to Jeremy even when I think he is distracted. We arrived & took Banyan for a quick walk around outside so he could stretch since it was going to be a long morning. We headed inside where they quickly had Jeremy head back to a room & lay down. As soon as Jeremy laid down Banyan paced back & forth in front of the bed. I asked the doctor since it was a small procedure room if Banyan could please lay with Jeremy. He was more then happy for us to allow Banyan up with Jeremy . As soon as I pointed to the bed & told Banyan "up" he jumped up with his front paws & waited for me to assist getting the rest of him up. He immediately snuggled beside Jeremy and seemed to calm right down.

As the doctor & nurse got everything ready Jeremy began to whimper because he knew he had to get at least one poke for them to place the port. At this time I noticed Banyan simply lay one paw & his head over Jeremy's lap. Jeremy started rubbing his head and it seemed to calm Jeremy for the moment. As soon as the nurse started prepping Jeremy,  Banyan became very alert. When the doctor stuck the needle in & Jeremy cried out Banyan snuggled some more with his eyes never leaving the doctor's hands. The doctor started drawing the first 8 tubes of blood we needed & Banyan still watched. Once the doctor was using his soft fun voice talking to Banyan as he drew the blood and tried to get his attention. Never once did Banyan lift his head from Jeremy's lap or acknowledge the doctor. The nurse was so impressed she asked if she could take a picture while they worked. She commented on how she had never seen a Golden who is only 1 year old stay so calm for so long. We where going on about an hour at this point.

Here they had just finished drawing the first 8 tubes of blood and where going to let Jeremy sit up soon. Banyan finally closed his eyes for a moment but would open them right back up as they began to wrap tape over the port. Soon Jeremy was sitting up a lot more relaxed which in turn seemed to relax Banyan.

At this point we had to wait another hour for more blood draws so I had Banyan hop down to nap on the floor while Jeremy played. Banyan laid down and was sleeping for about thirty minutes before the doctor came back in & he sat right up. I kept him down on the floor at this time because it was so quick to get the next two viles of blood from Jeremy. But what surprised me was when the doctor laid the viles on the bed next to Jeremy, Banyan went over sniffed them then laid his head back on Jeremy's lap. We have had no seizure activity since we brought Banyan home. The blood draw today I think was a great chance for Banyan to really smell Jeremy's scent from the blood in a normal state. Everything we've read said it's a good way to train medic alert dogs because Jeremy's scent will dramatically change should he seize or have a low blood sugar.


Banyan did his job today & he did it well. Jeremy stayed calm as did Banyan. We are so blessed to have God open the doors so wide for us when we where praying about getting a service dog back in October. Today was just more evidence to me that we made the right choice. The two walked together today better the I have ever seen. When the doctor had Jeremy follow him w/out Banyan, I thought Banyan was going to pull me behind the desk to get to Jeremy. Luckily I had a lot of treats & placed him where he could see Jeremy clearly. This whole three hour process was truly made easier by having Banyan by Jeremy's side.