As good as things were looking last week, this week unfortunately sucked.  We upped the Keppra to 750 mg last week, and we’d been seizure free since then.  She went for a walk with Ghost on Saturday and was totally fine, and then she rocked out her CGC class on Sunday evening.  And then Monday came…

I dropped her off at daycare and told them that she’d had a really good weekend and that she could do a little bit of quiet group play.  I went back to pick her up around 4:00 and they said she’d had a small seizure around 10:30 but seemed ok.  Well, she came out walking kind of funny, and they asked if she was a wall hugger.  Right then it was pretty evident she was going into another seizure.  This was a little different, as she was somewhat responsive for a lot of it.  She was very drooly, and was really dazed afterwards.  I found out then that she’d had yet another small one about an hour before I got there.  I picked up the phone and called the neurologist right then, and they said to go ahead and go on home but watch her, and if she had another seizure to bring her right away to the ER.  Well, we got *maybe* a mile up the road from daycare before she started seizing again.  I pulled a U turn as soon as it was safe, and beat feet to the ER.  They took her back to stabilize her, and I talked to the doctor on call as well as our neurologist.  He wasn’t happy with the lack of control of the seizures, and so we talked at length about her best options and decided in the end that phenobarbital is the best course of action at this point.  So they gave her the loading dose of the phenobarb IV, as well as some valium to sedate her and break the seizure cluster.  I was there taking care of everything for a couple hours, and then I was able to go home.  I was beyond drained by the time I got home, and worried sick about her.

I kept the consult appointment Tuesday morning with the general surgeon to talk about her spay, but we obviously decided that Wednesday was not a good day to do it.  He said it should be pretty simple procedure and outlined the things he plans on doing to keep her brain protected.  I feel pretty confident, but with it being at the specialist and having all the extra precautions it’s going to be damn expensive.  We all agree that it needs to be done, and Dr. Clarke (neuro) said he’s found some truth to the old wives tale that unaltered females have a harder time with seizure control.  I’m aware that she might not be with us much longer, but I still want to get it done since it’s one less thing to worry about.

I was able to bring her home Thursday afternoon after work, and she hadn’t had a seizure since arriving at the ER.  I was pleased with that, but it was startling how affected she was by all the drugs.  She’s been super wobbly all week, and incredibly derpy.  She’s still our sweet little girl, but definitely out of it.  I’ve definitely seen some improvement over the last couple days in that regard, but she did have a small seizure after she got home on Tuesday, and then what I believe was a petit mal yesterday after we got home from work and daycare.  So far she’s been good today, so I hope the phenobarb levels are coming up and helping to control things.  We have a follow up with Dr. Clarke on Wednesday, and if she’s done well we’re going to revisit the spay and hopefully get that done by the end of the week.  I’m going to jump on the first window she gives us to get it done safely.

So, it’s been one hell of a long week, and I’m glad it’s essentially over.  Now I can go chill out, get some work graded for my classes, and do my reading for biology in the morning.  Then, Colorado and summiting Mount Elbert