Happy Days

Well things have been going great lately, everything just seems great and I just seem to be enjoying life right now. We don't think about the seizure monster and we get on with living.

Dad's even taken me into work a few times and everyone sees that as a trip to the vet these days. But instead it's just been an excuse for me to go with him and spend the day doing something different. Each time I go in someone says "Oh, your off to the vet again?". Well No, not this time. When I'm with dad at work I'm as good as gold. Just lazing around and happy just to be with peoples.

Dad's been indulging his other hobby too just lately. I know he needs his car for work but he also spends time working on it to keep it in tip top shape and spends more money on it that mum would like. But it is one of my favourite places to be too. It's because it means we're going out somewhere like the woods. So I'll often jump in the back and just lie waiting until he's done before we go out.

Dad thinks its funny that the Polish guys who work in the garage opposite are wary of me when I'm out. He works on the car and I just sit around either in the car or waiting by the car and pay them no attention. But if I'm in behind the gate I'll bark at them and scare them. So when I'm not behind the gate they kind of creep around not to attract my attention, but all I really want is for them to come and say hello!

Can you hear Santa Claus?

Well it may seem surreal but that's the question that was asked this morning at 03:40. "Can you hear Santa Claus?"

At Christmas the kids bought me a squeaky Santa Claus toy. I've never really shown it much interest which is why it's survived through to February. It's most often in bed and everyone can than hear me getting in and out as it squeaks each time I do. But we weren't prepared for the secondary usage until today.

03:40 Early in the morning I was downstairs in bed when mum and dad heard a rythmic squeaking, hence the strange question. When they got down to me the squeaking had stopped but there was plenty of foamy evidence that I'd had one of my big seizures. Other than that everything was fine, didn't want to get up or anything so after staying with me for a bit they left me in bed. Eventually I got up and came to spend the rest of the night on the floor in the bedroom.

12:55 Up until now everything has been back to normal. No disorientation or any signs I'd even had a seizure this morning. Then whilst lying asleep upstairs off I went again. A little rest again afterwards and back to normal. No pacing or blindness at all.

20:00 Dad was downstairs cutting his hair and mum was in the bathroom. Chris found me and called dad to get him come take care of me. I'd snuck upstairs and was having a nap in the bedroom. A bit of wee and slobber as usual, but then back to normal pretty sharpish again.

The Changing Nature of Seizures

Well the seizures haven't really stopped. But at least dad and I got a good nights sleep last night. Periodically yesterday I'd have a seizure, followed fairly closely by another. Dad didn't end up recording them all, but there must have been another 5 during the day.

09:40 Today they started later in the morning. I'd just woken up and was nosing dad in the face, then mooching around and pacing a bit before I started chomping and head shaking whilst standing up. Dad came over to make sure I didn't fall and hurt myself, but I just lay down sphinx style and carried on with the chomping and head shaking. Almost as soon as it was over I was alert and not quite stable but better than I have been.

We went downstairs and not long after I went into another chomping and head shaking. Then within five minutes of recovering I was off again. The difference with these last ones are the paddling is missing. Now it's as if I'm still partly concious as I'll flay out with my legs trying to catch my balance so I don't roll over. Also the recovery period directly after seems shorter.

We're just hoping that we're getting to the last of them for this cluster.

Welcoming in the New Year

Wow, what a night. I've spent all night having seizure after seizure. Every hour another one. Poor dad's been kept up all night lying on the sofa, letting me out, mopping up and then calming me down and putting me back to bed. He sure looks beat today.

From 23:30 last night I started having big seizures. After each one I was pretty spaced out and uncoordinated. At one point I stepped in my water bowl and flung it all over the kitchen floor. If it wasn't water it was pee that dad had to mop up.

I'd come in a lie down next to him and whine and cry for an hour until the next seizure struck. This went on until 7:00 this morning and even now I'm still having big chompies here and there. I was so wasted I even ate my breakfast sitting down!

Dad seems to think I may have missed a seizure at 6:00am, but can't be sure through sleep deprivation.

So right now I've gone all puppy like. I do as I'm told still but I'm all starey eyed and can't leave mum alone. I'm her shadow today. But then she is cooking a turkey.

New Year, Same as the Old Year?

We hope not. We're hoping that this cluster is at an end and we can start the new year without the torment.

08:00 Dad came charging downstairs to find me frothing and trashing in my bed. Same start to the day as before.

14:30 We went to the woods again as dad's car is finally back on the road. We called in for some spare parts along the way then went out into the woods for some fresh air and fun. I'd been off chasing around the trees and generally having fun when about 20 minutes in I was stood by dad and started blinking and chomping.

I fell over and started fitting and throwing pine needles and leaves everywhere. Dad kept an eye on me and eventually when I came round we had a 20 minute walk back to the car with me puffing and panting. In that time I was back to normal.

19:45 Just when we all thought it was over for the day. I was sleeping in my bed when another full seizure struck.

The Regular Reveille

Seems like this is the week for seizures all right. Been getting them once a day so far and in the early morning to wake everyone up.

05:45 (Yesterday) Same old process. Wake dad up, need to go out and then after a bit of mooching around go back to bed.

07:25 (Today) Time to get up everyone! Dad took me downstairs and gave me some water, but I wasn't interested.

When I finally went back up to bed I woke dad again with retching and he got to me to put a bucket under my head before it went everywhere. That might have something to do with mum leaving the Indian buffet out when she went to bed. I knocked something over whilst helping myself to some onion bhaji's and vegetable pakora's, so dad came down to see what it was. I managed to get into the kitchen so he didn't see me, phew, just in time!

Two Breakfasts, Yummy!

08:15 Got visited again this morning. As ever dad's off work so the seizures just drop by in time. I woke mum and dad up again and dad came down to let me out and gave me my breakfast. Which was a bit of a result because later on mum came down and gave me my breakfast. Woohoo! Two breakfasts in one day. Always an upside to everything!

Yule Tide Surprise

09:00 Well it's been long in the coming but today I woke mum and dad at 9am with a full seizure. I was asleep in the bedroom when dad heard me chomping and thought nothing of it, until mum noticed I was going into a full seizure.

It's been 3 months and 19 days since the last one - which is quite a record. Let's hope it's at least that long before another.

Even though it's been so long since the last one, the after affects were minor. No real disorientation or blindness. I managed to follow dad downstairs and outside without falling over of banging into things.

 

Just Mad About Snow

Mum and dad took me out for a walk in the snow yesterday. It was great fun. We went all along the road to the shops and then went around to the park where dad filmed me eating snow. I just can't get enough of it.

I like snow so much that when dad took me out today, he decided to clean the cars off first. I just stood and watched and this is how I ended up! Dad just stood laughing at me and had to take this goofy picture.

Yesterday was quite an anniversary for me. 3 months since my last seizure. That's something we're all very happy about.

Dad called the vets to arrange a repeat prescription for the medication. With money being tight at the minute I know we weren't looking forward to the having to make a chargeable visit to see the vet, then having to pay for a blood test and then having to pay for the prescription. Well I think we caught them on a good day. They didn't demand we had an appointment or blood test, yay! They just charged us for the prescription and off we went.

It's still not great as the prescription charge is £18.75, but it's much cheaper than buying the drugs from the vet. In total the drugs come to around £250 per quarter if we buy them online with the vets prescription. The vet will waive the prescription charge if we buy the drugs from them, but they are exactly double the price! We pay 7p and 14p for the 30mg and 60mg Epiphen respectively. The vet wants 14p and 28p for the same tablets. So to save £1,000 per year I must spend £80 on prescriptions. That seems like a deal to me!

Bleurghhhhhhh!

I really don't like dad much today. I know over the past week or so I've had a bit of a problem with smelly breath, but that's no excuse to torture me!

For the past week or so mum and dad have been concerned about my breath. They say it smells bad. They also say that where I've been licking myself it's making me smell too. Dad's pretty sure it's not my mouth that smells. My teeth are in good order, nice and clean, nothing growing on them.

So the source of the smell is a mystery.

It seems even when breathing from my nose dad can smell it and he's had his head almost in my mouth like a lion tamer to see if it's my mouth. We'll have a word with the vet about it on Monday and see what it could be.

Having had a browse around it appears that "Chlorhexidine Gluconate" is safe for dogs and is used in a number of antiseptic treatments for pets. It's most commonly used in human Antiseptic Mouthwash. So dad brought some home today. He also bought a spray pump to deliver it in.

Now the nasty part. Dad called me over and had me sit. Then opened my mouth like he does to give me my tablets, but then sprayed a load of this nasty, horrible liquid into my mouth. I really, really don't like it. I shook my head and tried to get rid of the taste off my tongue, but it was going nowhere. It's horrible!

I know dad's going to persevere with this for a few days to see if it clears up my little problem, but I'm not looking forward to it at all.