I have several medical illnesses that have required me to endure chemotherapy treatments and surgery many times in the last eight years. Many of them are auto immune related and all of them are incurable. The second last treatment for just one of my conditions caused me to gain over 90lbs in less than six months on my slim 120lb frame. The side effects of all these treatments can be more dangerous than the illnesses they seek to control causing weight loss, hair loss, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, heart and liver damage and even seizures that lasted 11 months and caused the loss of my drivers licence for over two years. Working is very important to me as it provides quality of life during a difficult time and of course I need the benefits for my expensive medications. My most recent treatment, which I had to stop in the last few months due to loss of benefits, caused the opposite problem which was to loose all that weight in only a few months. I am also more susceptible to colds, flu’s and other illness. Due to my bowel condition, even taking an antibiotic for one day risks my life and unfortunately causes me to miss work. My clients seem very patient however and simply reschedule. Many of them are persons with disabilities themselves so are very understanding.

At the end of the second most recent chemotherapy to control just one of my chronic illnesses my Specialist decided that to continue to try to treat one of my illnesses was simply too dangerous, and as a result I was referred to a Palliative Pain Specialist to control the debilitating pain this illness causes. This occurred with in a few months of me returning to work at a large pet store chain. Unfortunately my original position was not available and I was very interested in attending grooming academy so very thankful for this opportunity off I went! I was very surprised at how hard it was! See I have worked with many different species of animals and non animals throughout my entire life as a trainer. I have trained everything from hamsters to cows (and of course dogs!) as I study animal ethology or how animals learn as a lifelong hobby and am even working towards my BA.
Animal ethology is defined as being the scientific study of animal behaviour, especially as it occurs in a natural environment. I have always held a particular interest in aggression as a behavioural process rather than in a particular animal group and often study one type of behaviour in a number of unrelated species. I find understanding how animals think and learn crucial to being a successful and humane groomer. I also share my home with a number of pets including (current at the time of publication only) 5 cats, 3 dogs, a hamster, a rabbit, a tank of vicious fish (including Jack the homicidal Cichlid) and a horse.
See when I had watched groomers work in the pet store I used to work at, it always looked so easy to me, although it did not always look “fun”. I had no idea the hours and hours of studying required, both in the classroom and around the grooming table. Not only to make a pet look and feel great, but to do it as safely as possible for everyone involved. Dogs are sharp at five out of six sides after all! A bite from a cat can literally end your career.

The greatest challenge I face as a groomer with a permanent disability is coping with the daily and sometimes hourly changes of my condition. I have Severe Pelvic Nerve Neuropathy. How this was explained to me was that I had been in such severe pain for so long it caused severe, irreparable and incurable damage to the nerve endings in my pelvis. The bad news is there is no cure and my doctors are not even sure how to treat it and only know that it may end in my complete reliance on a wheelchair or worse with in a few years time. The worse news is it appears to be spreading and is affecting my ability to control my bladder and bowel function. I was on many medications for chemotherapy to control the severe and debilitating pain of this new incurable illness and have a very limited strict diet that I have to adhere to daily.