Dogs, Babies and Baclofen

I watched in amazement as she was navigating her environment in all the ways she can, and doing it in the fastest way she can.  Always on the move when she is awake, she is curious, watching everything, trying to figure everything out, and is nearly ready to walk.

There are few better ways to be fully present than to be with an active nine-month-old.

A perfect way to spend the day after my intrathecal baclofen dose reduction, I thought.

The little bean’s mom and I caught up on our lives in between redirecting, distracting and her nap.

But nothing happened by the time it has happened with the previous decreases.

I went home at 4pm to be with my dogs through the evening storm, and after it was over, things were different.

I was stiffer, but I wasn’t sure how that was going to affect how I would go about the day I had planned for today.

At 25% less of a dose of intrathecal baclofen,  it was clear that my gait was wider and I was having to lift up the left leg to get it to go forward without tripping or dragging it.

I still didn’t really know what that meant, but I went to bed early.  When I awoke this morning, I could feel the tiny muscles in both of my feet hurting from the tightness.  I couldn’t tell if I could propel off the right foot, but was sure that the left leg and foot situation had gotten worse.

Because I could still get around inside my house, I decided to brave a dog walk with my cane to better assess things.

The dogs are troopers and always adapt quickly, and I had no reservations about trying to do the walk.  It was a beautiful morning and cooler than usual for late July.

Holy moly.  Walking was HARD.  Where the cane used to speed me up, it now just gets me forward enough to say I am going forward.  I was certain we were on the same block for an hour, even though it was minutes.

The dogs are used to a faster pace and slow means that they can smell everywhere.  Their smelling was a great “cover” for me because we were moving so slowly already.

Needless to say, nothing I did requiring movement happened very quickly today.  I didn’t perceive slowing down to be a bad thing, however.  I couldn’t get ahead of myself.  I can still drive, get around my place and even get up and down from the floor with my dogs.

Through all of this, there have been no fires, nor potential arsonists.  I caught up with a couple of friends I hadn’t seen since my Big Girl Panty Party, got my legs in a pool to ease the tightness, worked with my editor friend on my manuscript, and am formulating my plan for taking Duke to work at HEP tomorrow.

I am not worrying about the decrease next week.  And, I have not even been tempted to buy anything in bulk.

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