Appointment with Dr. Katherman

On Thursday, August 5th, Brady has an appointment to see Dr. Katherman for a physical exam and some blood work. She suspects that his phenobarbital level has probably dropped below therapeutic range due to how quickly the liver metabolizes it out of the body. Therefore, tweaking this drug may be in order. We will wait for the results and post what we find out.

Brady has been doing really well since this recent bout of seizures on Sunday. He is looking bright and alert and doesn't seemed to have suffered any ill effects. Thank you dear Lord for watching over him and all of us.

Seizure Monster Pays A Visit

On Sunday, August 1, 2010, at 2:18 am the awful seizure monster paid a visit. It had been 56 days and 6 hours since Brady's last seizure. He had a grand mal at 2:18 am that lasted about a minute or maybe a little less. This one was typical of his previous seizure on 6-5-10. Possibly there was less thrashing or it could have been because Jeff was holding him close on his bed. There did seem to be less drool. Recovery was quick and he was on his feet by 2:22 am. Once the seizure was over and before he stood up, I inserted a valium suppository. As I was going into the kitchen to get him a cup of kibble afterwards, he had another focal seizure. At first, Jeff thought he was getting ready to go into another grand mal. However, he didn't go into a full blown seizure, but did have a partial or focal seizure which was over quickly. This happened at 2:30 am and again he had a quick recovery. I gave him a cup of food (one half cup at a time because he devours it so fast, I am always afraid that he will choke) and some rescue remedy on a piece of bread. We took him out to use the bathroom and while we were in the garage I gave him a small bit of vanilla ice cream.
We went back to the bedroom to try to get him to settle down and hopefully go back to sleep. I don't think I ever really slept, but dozed off for short spurts. At 4:30 am I heard him and turned the lamp on dim. He was on my side of the bed on the floor. I knelt down in the floor with him and he was having another focal. This involved eye blinking and face twitching and contorting. He appeared to be blind momentarily. This seemed to be over very quickly and probably only lasted about 30 seconds.
Once again we tried to get settled and go back to sleep. At 5 am the alarm sounded....time for Jeff to get up and get ready for work. Brady got on the bed with me and we went to sleep. At 6:46 am he went into another grand mal seizure. It was pretty much the same as the one at 2 am. It lasted a minute, possibly a little less (our bedside clock is digital and doesn't show seconds). Once the thrashing stopped, I quickly put him on his bed in the floor and ran to the fridge to get another valium suppository. I inserted it and he was on his feet by 6:50 am. Once again he made a quick recovery. Once he had come around, I gave him his morning dose of medications.