Today has been a really good one for me. Indeed, one of the best since I became ill. Why? Today, I took my dogs out for a walk by myself for the first time since my diagnosis!
Last year, I was so weak that the dogs were able to pull me over if they saw something they wanted to chase. After my last bad fall, I lost my nerve and stopped walking them altogether. A dog walker has been taking them out for me and we have become good friends over the last few months. At first, I couldn't walk at all while recovering from surgery, then radiotherapy left me too tired to walk far. As the year's progressed, I've been going out on the walks with the dog walker and, occasionally, with a friend or neighbour if they've been free. I've been far too worried, though, to attempt taking the dogs out alone.
As I've been feeling rather well over the last few days, this morning I decided to try going for a dog walk without anyone accompanying me. So, we had half an hour or so in the nearby woods and the only time there was any problem at all was when we met another, barking dog on our way home. With the aid of the new walking harnesses, all was well. My dogs soon stopped trying to pull when they realised it really wasn't a good idea and hurt their noses and we got back without me crashing to the ground and the dogs running off down the road.
Definitely one of my best days this year.
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