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| Cindy Hartman and her hearing/ seizure/service/therapy dog, Reuben |
“When a hunting dog spots a rabbit, they make a sound like AAHROO!” Cindy M. Hartman says with a chuckle. At her aptly named Aahroo Kennels in Lugoff, S.C., Hartman breeds, raises and trains the rare Basset Fauve de Bretagne breed, along with German and wirehaired pointers.
Hartman obviously loves to hear the excited howls of her beloved dogs but hearing loss threatens to deprive her of that joy. Her hearing loss is due to a rare source: multiple sclerosis (MS). Hartman has suffered from the symptoms of MS for 38 years, having been diagnosed with relapsing/remitting MS 28 years ago. She has experienced episodes of vision loss from partial to full blindness, seizures during sleep or with a high fever and, over the last eight years, intermittent hearing loss. Hartman likens her hearnig loss to “going through a tunnel listening to a radio with the sound going on and off.”
Last year Hartman’s diagnosis was changed to secondary progressive MS, meaning that her symptoms no longer appear and disappear sporadically, allowing her to return to relatively normal functioning when they are not present. Instead she now faces a slow, downhill progression of the disease.
According to the National MS Society, “Hearing loss is an uncommon symptom of MS. About six percent of people who have MS complain of impaired hearing. In very rare cases, hearing loss has been reported as the fi rst symptom of the disease. Deafness due to MS is exceedingly rare, and most acute episodes of hearing defi cit caused by MS tend to improve.”
Since MS afflicts the central nervous system, hearing loss is caused by nerves not conducting properly and the signal to the brain being interrupted. MS is indicated by plaques, or lesions, in the brain or spinal cord. If the temporal lobe of the brain is affected, it can cause problems with auditory stimuli, memory and speech.
Hartman has a 35 percent loss in one ear and profound loss in the other. She wears hearing aids religiously. “I wear them all day and often sleep with them in,” she says, as she doesn’t want to miss anything in life. “I will do whatever it takes to keep myself as independent and functional as possible,” Hartman says with determination. “A cochlear implant is something I may be facing in the near future.”
One of the sources of Hartman’s resilience is her dogs, especially Reuben, eight, a golden retriever. “He is my guide dog and hearing/seizure/service/therapy dog,” she says. “He lets me know if someone is at the door, when the buzzer on the dryer sounds, if the microwave beeps, if someone is calling my name or if the smoke detector signals. But he doesn’t understand what a false alarm is. If the smoke alarm goes off, I have to go outside before he’ll stop nudging me to go out. In large places such as Sam’s Club, he will nudge me if a forklift is coming up behind.
“I also rabbit and bird hunt with Reuben. I like to work one of the Fauves if I’m rabbit hunting and take a pointer bird hunting. I have a designated shooter who goes with me because I’m not stable enough to shoot a gun. I hand it off when it’s time to shoot, usually to my brother.”
All dogs in Hartman’s Aahroo Kennel are show dogs. She was the fi rst to import and register the Fauve breed into U.S. and there are still fewer than 100 of the dogs in this country.
“I just fell in love with the Fauve, ”she says, “and I breed one litter each year. I brought my fi rst two Fauves into the U.S. in November 2001 from the elite Meignaniere lines, bred by Louis Delommeau, who is internationally famous for breeding, training, hunting and showing them.”
Hartman studied under French hunting judges and had the assistance of three judges and the president of France’s Club du Fauve de Bretagne in selecting her foundation stock. “I had researched the breed but seeing Fauves hunt and having the dogs curled up in my lap solidified my decision,” Hartman remarks on her Web site, www.aahroo.com.
“My brother and I also raise wirehair pointers. I got one for him nine years ago so he would have a hunting dog,” Hartman says. She ultimately ended up with the dog and the first litter was born this year. “I am donating seven of the puppies to different police departments and to homeland security to become border patrol dogs. I will help train some of the dogs.”
Hartman is a certifi ed master dog trainer, having studied socialization, obedience and search and rescue at the National K-9 Learning Center in Columbus, Ohio, in 1980. In fact, she has more than 40 years experience of showing, training and breeding dogs.
It’s obvious that Hartman stays plenty busy connecting with the dogs in her kennel but she also makes sure to keep in touch with other people. “It would be so easy to isolate myself but I work too hard to keep that from happening. It’s all about giving and taking and loving and being loved. People give their gifts and talents to me. “I have a friend who mows my grass and in return I pick up her children after school and give them a snack and entertain them. It gives me joy to be near the young and happy children. We share our talents,” says Hartman.
As for her health, Hartman believes that keeping regular doctor appointments and staying in communication with healthcare providers are key elements in managing her condition. “It is important to plan ahead and know what questions to ask. I write my questions down and that way I don’t get fl ustered and forget to ask something,” she explains.
Hartman’s proactive determination won her the 2006 National Multiple Sclerosis Society Advocacy Award for her work as a chapter chairperson of the MS government relations committee, which drafted legislation helpful to people with MS and taught people self-advocacy. Hartman also stays active and connected as the director of Hispanic outreach ministry for her church, which provides English language training to adults and homework tutoring to school-age children at least one night a week.
With three grown sons, two daughters-in-law and two grandchildren, Hartman’s family also keeps her
running – even though, she remarks, that to see her grandchildren Josh, 11, and Sydney, nine, in nearby Columbia, “I have to make an appointment!”
They must take after their grandmother. If MS wasn’t slowing Hartman down, it would be Josh and Sydney who would need the appointment.
Elizabeth Thompson is a columnist for Suburban News Publications and lives in Grove City, Ohio. Her book, Day by Day, the Chronicles of a Hard of Hearing Reporter was published in June 2008 by Gallaudet University Press.
