July 16th should be a great day for us.  It’s Aaron’s birthday, and as such a year ago today we were out celebrating while on the vacation of a lifetime.  I’d taken him out to White Sands beach on Oahu to teach him how to surf, and we had a great time.  Of course while I showed him how to do it, that asshole rode multiple waves while I had a bad day and never managed to stand up 😛

We were on our way back to our hotel from that surfing trip when we got the phone call that would shatter our worlds.  Kim, our house sitter called and nervously said “um, Shadow just laid down and was shaking, and your vet isn’t answering the phone”.  You know in movies and stuff when you hear the sound of a record scratching?  It was something like that as my brain struggled to process what I’d just heard.  I was on the other side of the world and my 4 month old puppy was having seizures.  I was powerless to do anything.  God bless Kim and Holly though, they kept their cool and got Shadow the care she needed at the after hours E-Vet in Annapolis.  Knowing they had things under control meant one less thing we had to worry about as we travelled back from Hawaii.

The last year has brought a lot of sadness, anger, resentment, questioning, but has also given us a new perspective on life.  We’re beyond the “why us” and “what did we do to deserve this”, and have moved on to “how can we give her the best life” and “what can we do to help others in this situation”.  Being able to connect with other hydro pup owners as well as a couple of children with hydrocephalus has really helped us deal with everything and be able to keep supporting Shadow.  Since the last post we’ve had a lot of changes, but I didn’t want to write on them until we had an idea on whether or not the new stuff would work.  Our neurologist in Annapolis abruptly left that practice and moved out of state, and so we were left a bit high and dry.  Aaron and I chose to leave that neurology practice and we are now patients of Dr. Jarboe at Bush Neurology in Leesburg, VA.  That practice is amazing, Dr. Jarboe is wonderful, and in my humble opinion it’s more than worth the hour and a half (one way) trip to go see her.  We may ultimately wind up with Dr. Bush himself now that the Rockville office is open, but for now we’re happy with the care she’s getting.

Shadow began a series of non convulsive “events” shortly after the last post, and with Dr. Jarboe’s blessing we have begun a cannabid product derived from the hemp plant.  Before anyone freaks out that I’m giving my dog marijuana, I’m not.  The company that makes this supplement is called Canna Companion and was founded by two vets who had done extensive research on cannabid products and how they can be used to help animals with serious health issues.  Since the compound contains no THC and is derived from the Cannabis Sativa L (hemp) plant, the product is 100% legal.  I’m still very careful about it, as even the perception of illegal drugs could be very bad at this point.  After doing careful and extensive research, I judged that the benefits far outweighed the risks and we started Shadow on it under the guidance of Dr. Jarboe and the vets at Canna Companion.  The results have been astounding.  We immediately noticed a change in her demeanor and appetite (had decreased markedly after starting the Zoni), and very quickly realized that she was not only more stable on her feet but also more mentally alert and interactive with us.  I think the most telling sign of improvement was when several of our sponsor midshipmen (from the Naval Academy) came through one weekend between their summer training events and all wanted to know what had changed with Shadow.  They all exclaimed how awesome she looked, without even being asked by us what they thought.  We did have a few issues with more of those events, but we offset the Zonisamide by an hour due to the suspicion that she was just bottoming out on med levels around the morning medication time.  Since then we’ve only had one issue which was yesterday, and we just swapped manufacturers on the Keppra again.  Overall though, Shadow is doing wonderfully and we are cautiously optimistic for her.

Wow, this has become quite the long post…

Anyway, I’m hoping for continued improvement and control of these seizures as we head into year 2 of dealing with The Monster.