Adventures of Bailey

(1) Where Our Adventure Begins (Madison POV)

My name is Madison, but I go as Maddie, I am a fifteen-year-old teenager who has multiple chronic invisible illnesses and disabilities that lands me in the hospital quite often. You are probably thinking why I am too young to be chronically sick at my age, well my life has consisted of multiple doctors’ appointments, different types of tests, hospital stays, and many medications that I have to take days or even weekly depending on the medication or illness I have. You could say I am a professional in dealing with being chronically sick. I am in a special high school program due to being in and out of hospitals multiple times and having a service dog who has been there for me for more times than I can count. My life is like I am a superhero because I am fighting for my life and trying to be a normal teenager. People have no idea how difficult it can be for dealing with multiple chronic invisible illnesses and disabilities. It can be very complex at times such as not being able to hang out with friends as you see in a public place like a bowling alley, a mall, or even a park.

Bailey is basically my sidekick, and I am the hero. We are an awesome service dog team that everyone knows from our social media accounts which I share with my sister. Every day we vlog on what is happening with my health, school, what's trending on the internet, and of course, raising awareness for my important awareness that everyone should know. Yes, even Bailey helps with vlogging with us, which can be very difficult due to sometimes she just ends up l*****g the camera or ends up taking the GoPro cam in her mouth and running off with it.

Most of the time when she takes the camera, it ends up in weird places such as her dog bed, mom and dad's bathroom, the backyard in her doghouse, and many other places around the house and yard. Bailey thinks everything is hers in the house even when it comes to personal space with a bed, it is not like we push her off to be mean, but she can really be a bed hog at times.

One of the coolest things about my mom is that she is a veterinarian at the local service dog program called Paws of America, that is where I got Bailey from. My mom thought we should become a puppy raiser before we officially get a service dog from the program, which is not bad because my mom offers to help out in any way that she can with the program. We had about a couple of puppies placed with us for a short amount of time, which we helped train. When we got our fourth puppy from the program, we got Bailey and I had instead bonded with her.

Although my dad thought that Bailey was way too hyper to be placed with us due to all the medical issues and well, she was only about six months old. Over time my dad’s bond grows with Bailey so much that he has trained her with some military dog tricks that can be helpful.

Sometimes he takes Bailey to go training at his Air Force military base, which everyone loves Bailey, and she has her very own military dog ID with her service dog ID. I do come along when I do not have another doctor's appointment or the hospital stays, everyone on the base knows my family and I even Bailey, of course, you cannot miss the fluffy, sometimes hyper dog hopping like a bunny.

My sister Morgan is also chronically sick like me, sometimes when both have to be hospitalized, we are both placed in a double patient room. It's a good thing that is hospital roommates because we can keep each other's company and its easier for our doctors, nurses, and parents can find us with of course Bailey, who happens to sometimes like to explore the hospital room and floor to either say hi to everyone or alert a hospital staff member to come right to the room for something is going wrong for one of us.

There is a volunteer named Sarah who happens to love Bailey and helps us with her such as feeding, walking, and making sure she gives Bailey off vest time when my mother is not here to help. She also happens to be my aunt, who volunteers at the children's hospital of Walt Disney Pavilion at Florida Hospital for Children which is close to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios.

Once in a while, we like to visit our uncle Shawn who happens to be one of the richest and well-known businessmen in Florida, he also owns a couple of the sports teams in Florida such as the Florida Miami Dolphins, USA women soccer the Orlando Pride just to name a few. In fact, my cousin Savannah is a future Olympic soccer player on the Orlando Pride. She is the most talented and youngest soccer star. My other cousin Seth is the quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. You see, my family is pretty wealthy and very talented when it comes to sports. Both of my cousins spent lots of time creating fundraisers to help raise awareness for my invisible illnesses and help with raising money for a service dog, they had sports teams’ dinners to anything with bake sales.

Their love and support for me is unbelievable, I would not have Bailey without their help and instead of using their famous athletes' money, but they did put money in the many research funds for my sister and my chronic illnesses.

Sometimes I wish I could be a healthy athlete like my cousins and not be chronically sick all the time, you see I used to be a healthy athlete just like them but when I was little. I enjoyed the sport of competitive swimming when I was little, I was pretty fast when it came to my favorite swimming events such as the fifty and hundred freestyle and backstroke relays. I miss swimming so much that I miss the rush of swimming, the girls on my old swim team, the feeling of having your heart race so fast that it will fly out of your chest while trying to breathe normally after winning a race and so much more. My sister and I got the end of the stick when it comes to luck and with the family genes, we did not choose to be chronically ill, but it just happens to choose us. We are the only two that are sick in our family, which sucks at times, but we end up fighting and never give up together.

The day my mother bought a puppy from the program. It has been one of the happiest days in my life except for when my dad comes home from being deployed after his tours. In fact, my mother had this idea of surprising my dad at the base with the puppy, but that didn't turn out so well because dogs are not allowed on the base in the areas that are restricted and there are a lot of dangerous areas with all kinds of dangerous stuff. Plus, only dogs with special Ids are allowed on the base due to having special dogs to help out with many difficult tasks and since the dog was not a military dog. I know that if you bring a random dog on the base it can get pretty crazy with a hyper dog and the people will get very easily distracted. When the military dogs on the base see squirrels, it is the funniest thing like the seagulls in Finding Nemo that keep saying mine until they finally chase them up trees.

Anyways ever since my mom has brought Bailey home, my family and I have bonded much better. We have never been so close together. Sometimes I wonder how lucky I am to have Bailey in my life, and I have no idea what would happen if I did not have her. Bailey is one special dog. She has filled so much energy, happiness, and well a bundle of surprises. I am very thankful to have her in my life, and I have no idea what I will do without them when I have health issues going on. I am really glad my parents let me have a service dog and let me be independent without asking for help all the time. Well, there are too many awesome adventures to come and all of the best little moments in life.