[nagdu] stairs

[Julie J.]

Hello all!

My recovery from my broken foot is continuing to go very well.  I am up 
to walking short distances with no weight support help.  I'm working 
Monty on my left with either the mobility harness or his regular guide 
harness depending on which I feel is best for me at the time.   He is 
doing really, really well.  His guide work is excellent, like he didn't 
just have an almost four month break.  Of course we are not walking in 
complicated areas either, which makes a difference.

Anyway I'm writing to ask for help with a problem I'm having.  Yesterday 
I worked Monty into a building where I had a meeting to attend.  There 
were two sets of stairs, both only a few steps each.  Going up wasn't 
too bad, but down was very stressful.  Monty is very good at stopping at 
the top of steps.  I cannot remember a time in the past two years that 
he has run a flight of stairs going down.  I have also taught him to 
take the steps one at a time which he is doing perfectly.  The problem 
is not him, it's me.  I'm very nervous when approaching a set of stairs 
I know are coming up.

I'm pulling back on the harness handle, tensing and walking much more 
slowly.  I know this is not good and I need to fix it before my problem 
becomes a Monty problem too.

Has anyone had difficulty  with nervousness around stairs?  What helped 
you get past it?   It's hard to share this, but I know talking about it 
will help me think through my fear  logically and rationally. Any ideas 
or similar experiences would help a lot.

Thanks in advance!
Julie