As we approach 8 months since starting our medication journey, I thought it would be useful to look at our reactivity tracking over time.
I've added to the below chart details of when we started, reduced and stopped medication, as well as events which are significant for George such as a change in environment (overnight in daycare, guests staying) and a groom or vet visit.
It mostly reinforces what I had suspected. A visit to the groomer usually means more reactions that week (weeks 10, 15 and 29) but not always (week 23).
I suspect the large drop from week 1 to week 2 was largely due to improved management and drastically reducing walks.
Spending more time in the home office in week 26 (an environment George was less familiar with) contributed to more reactions. Surprisingly to me, an overnight in daycare didn't seem to have too much of an impact.
It's not an exact science of course. Sometimes I have seen an increase in reactions in the week following a significant event. For example, I remember he seemed to be struggling more in week 15 when he'd spent a few nights in daycare the previous week (but it was also unfortunately combined with a groom not far apart).
And it doesn't have the detail of when the big or frequent triggers occurred.
But as a high level overview it's quite useful to see the progress we have made.
With regards to medication, I find the tracking of intensity and duration of reactions assists with monitoring the impact.
The dramatic drop in average duration in week 9 when we started Clonidine reinforced to me how well it was working. Clonidine saved our sanity at home!
I do look forward to the day when I don't have to worry about tracking all of this. But for now, whilst we continue tweaking the medication, I'm finding it a useful process.
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