Today we headed out to New Seasons. Other than a short walk the other day, we had been home for four days and Thane was busting to get out of here. Last time we went there though Thane had a collapse afterwards. I needed to take precautions for him to assure that did not happen again.
There are three ways to get to New Seasons. LIFT paratransit, bus to max and then a long but nice walk, and two bus lines. We normally use the bus to max approach. Today I decided we would shortcut it to the bus stop across from our local Safeway and then connect with the other bus line that could drop us off with just a short walk to the store. A pitbull with its owner in front of Safeway, almost had a different plan for us. Ugghhhh
Thane remained so on task that if I had not heard some mostly unintelligible yelling or been asked by someone near the next Safeway entrance if we were OK, I never would have even known just how close we came to an instant replay of the attack on Met. I am so glad I trusted my dog when he directed me closer to the street edge of the sidewalk there!
The two bus approach to New Seasons has its drawbacks. The first is that the wait between one bus line to the next, can be as much as 30-40 minutes depending on time of day. This makes the trip take considerably more time and not an option on the return if refrigerated or frozen foods are bought. The second drawback is that this line uses lifts instead of ramps. Its doable but I have to remove Thane's handle, have him jump up the steps and then follow onto the lift with my guide cane. Boarding is much easier than de-boarding as to deboard (since we have little experience with this type of bus) I have to both hold the lead in a certain way behind me and safely wheel forward off the lift. To put it boldly, I have to trust the driver stopped in a safe place and no idiots are standing in the way wanting to board the bus yesterday, since I don't have a free hand for the guide cane. The third drawback is that a trip which usually takes close to an hour to make, takes about an hour and a half instead.
For Thane right now though, it is important to cut the distance he must walk down so that when we return home, he is not going lame. It could just be a matter of being out of shape or it could be Lyme itself that sent him to a crawl last time, but I am not willing to test which one it was just yet. I will give him time doing this approach. With it and using the short cut path and Safeway stops, he seemed to tolerate the walk to max for the ride home.
Where today stood, at least work function wise he did pretty well. He's still got concerning issues- least of all is his follow the line mentality, but by now I am getting pretty used to him taking me for a ride around the sharp spikes of weave poles LOL. He still has periodic issues with his skin which draws him to chew if I don't keep a watchful eye. He appears to have lost some hearing. He does better when its quieter, its certain tones, or if we are in the same room or vicinity. He is not deaf, but its noticeable and I stop myself from correcting when it requires a second *come* or a second *mommy needs* to get him to come and help or do something I want. His vision seems at least for today to be improving but his walking like he is on ice when he first goes from concrete or carpet to polished tile is more noticeable. That too is workable by letting him take a moment to get his footing better before moving forward. This kind of gait is often considered one where some vision disturbance is going on (according to the crappy ophthalmologist) so I guess I should not say there is no noticeable issue, but that he seems quite aware and functional in his guide work
Tomorrow's another day that may bring a good day or a low functioning day for either one or both of us. With that said, its time for us to hit the sack!
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