I'm sad to report that Brady's seizure clock had to be re-set this morning. At 6:41am, our sweet boy had a seizure. Of course, we've have hoped and prayed that he wouldn't have any further seizures, but we must be realistic and as hard as it may be, we must deal with them as they come. It has been 41 days since the last seizure, one day short of making it 6 weeks. Although I consider this seizure a grand mal it seemed to be less violent and less severe than those of the past. There was no loss of bladder control which is a positive since normally he does lose bladder control. There were other positives as well, it was of shorter duration, approximately 1.5 minutes, 2 minutes at the most of actual seizure activity, the convulsions weren't as violent as usual. The teeth gnashing occurred but also seemed less severe. There was plenty of drool but not an enormous amount as in the past. Since the seizure took place on our bed, I sort of laid over his body and held him close to the bed. Once the seizing stopped I picked him up and laid him on his bed on the floor so that once he came around there would be no chance of falling off the bed. The post ictal phase was much better than usual, there was almost no pacing and he seemed calmer and not as anxious as in the past. Also he didn't seem very ravenous at all, although I did give him two-thirds of a cup of dog food, and normally he is literally starving. The seizure happened only 4 minutes before he was due his medication. He recovered quickly and was on his feet by 6:46am, so all said and done it was 5 minutes total (from the minute the seizure began until he was on his feet again) as opposed to the usual 7-8 minutes. At 6:46am I inserted the rectal valium and at 6:48am gave him all of his medication plus quite a few drops of rescue remedy on a small piece of bread. Over all it was more toned down than the others. He wasn't wobbly or uncoordinated when he got up and walked around. His balance was good and he was able to walk down the stairs on his own.
At that point he was just fine and we went about our normal activity. We didn't get to go on our normal morning walk because it was pouring rain, but he would have been fine to go had it not been raining. Needless to say I have been watching him like a hawk since and am so thankful that I am able to do so.
I spoke with his neurologist on the phone and she recommends that we don't do anything different at the moment with the Zonisamide. There is room to move up to a higher dose if needed but it hasn't been long enough to say for sure if we need to. Also his Potassium Bromide dosage was just changed at the end of October and every time the dose is changed for that drug, it takes another 4 months to reach a steady state. It should be at a steady state by the end of February. Dr. Katherman is looking for better control of his seizures than only going 6 weeks between seizures, but said it will take some time to see a good trend. She is looking for that trend to happen over a period of time. So for now we will leave all meds at their current dose and pray that no seizures come again for a long while or never again would be a dream come true. Hopefully this time we will see much more time pass on his seizure clock and of course we will continue to pray that we will never have to re-set that clock and that he can become seizure free forever.
We put this all in God's hands long ago and will continue to do so. I will never forget what someone who lives with an epileptic dog told me recently and that is: God only gives these special needs dogs to those people who can handle it. I believe that applies to all special needs, not just epilepsy, and not just dogs, but all pets and people for that matter. Reminding myself of that statement truly helps me through the rough spots when life is not always smooth sailing. I am thankful that Brady belongs to us, that he is our dog to take good care of, and that we are able to do all we can do to help him through this dreaded disease. At times it feels devastating but then I quickly remember that we must be strong in order to help him when he needs it most.
