Seizure Monster

Well. ALOT has happened since I last posted here, actually, in just the last few days. Henry went into the worst cluster of his life. The seizure monster had decided it was determined to kill Henry. 7 am Sunday morning we rushed Henry to the vet. He was panting very hard, crying and shivering. The vet immediately gave Henry a hefty shot of Valium. She was barely done giving the shot when Henry started to go into a sixth Grand-Mal, paddling legs and stiffening up, but that Grand-Mal never took effect, thanks to the Valium.

It was then unanimously decided by everyone involved, this dog needs DRUGS, and he needs to be kept on them for LIFE. If it were not for drugs, Henry would have died that day. We took Henry home, and watched him like a hawk. Every time he stretches out, groans or shakes, my heart freezes fearing he'll go into another Grand-Mal.

Henry slept for all of that day, and then at 10PM, the Valium wore off, and Henry began to pant very hard. I knew what was coming next. Crying, shivering, then WHAM! Seizure monster was gonna try again to kill my dog. I promptly gave Henry rectal Valium. Within ten minutes the panting stopped and Henry seemed much more comfortable. For the next two days, the seizure monster kept trying to come back every time the Valium wore off, so I had to keep drugging him with Valium. I am pleased to report that the Phenobarbital has kicked in, and today is the first day he no longer needs Valium.

I expect recovery to take a while. He is still very confused and his eyes don't compute vision correctly. It's hard to explain the vision thing. He's not blind, but he bumps into things and he has great difficulty getting off the bed because he seems to think the floor is 50 feet down. When awake, he follows my every step, like a baby duckling. If something got in his way and he loses me, he stands there and cries until I come get him.

Yesterday I was in tears because Henry is showing so much brain damage and I started to worry about his recovery. I posted through Epil-K9, and received an overwhelming # of responses relating what their experience was in recovery after a big cluster and that it can take up to a month for recovery. So, that comforted me greatly. And today, he does show more improvement. He's on his way to recovery.

I am truly fortunate that he is still here. Every day is a gift with him.

I know the Phenobarbital will have negative side effects, but trust me, the side effects of the Grand-Mals~ heavy panting, crying, shivering in fear, blind, confused is just way worse than the side effects of the Phenobarbital.

So, bring on the ataxia, bring on the incontinence (which has already started by the way), bring on the extreme hunger and thirst. That's a piece of cake compared to what we just went through. We can do this. We are officially survivors.