Wel, Henry Made It 118 Days This Time (grand-mal)

[Guest EmilyAnne]

Henry had a Grand-Mal about an hour ago. I knew it was coming. We were upstairs, and he started to cry in a very urgent way. I ran downstairs and got an extra grain of Phenobarbital, I noticed Henry was acting blind and thought oh no.... He did take the Pheno. He really wanted to go downstairs. With me guiding him he started to go down the stairs, and at the third step from the bottom went into full blown Grand-mal.

 

I made sure he was reasonably safe at the bottom of the steps on the kitchen floor with a rug by his face, then went to the freezer that was only a few feet away and grabbed the ice bag. Unfortunately the ice bag was in one big huge clump and was useless. I tried, but no effect. I hated to have to bang up the ice bag to get it loose while he was seizuring, as noise and light is terribly aggravating during seizure. But the seizure kept going on, and I decided to go for it and proceeded to break up the ice, but it was just too hard, Finally the seizure did end. I didnt time it. The violent part was probably a couple minutes, then the other part was about 5 minutes. Felt like an eternity.

 

Note to self, ALWAYS make sure the ice in the bag is loose and on the ready.

 

118 days is very, very, very good. A few more days (Feb. 5th) he would have made it to 4 months which I don't think in all of his recorded seizure history he had ever made it that long.

 

I'll look at his record tomorrow and see if he had ever made it this long before.

[Fiona3]

Oh Emily, I can't imagine how hard it must be to watch you beloved pup with a seizure. You handle this all so well. That is indeed good news that the time has stretched between them. How long does it take Henry to recover from a grand-mal? Poor baby. Hope the time stretches more and more between seizures for your beautiful Henry.

[GreyKarma]

Emily, I am sorry Henry had another seizure, but 118 days is still a great span. With everything else you have going on with the house I pray Henry stays stable. Do you have the valium suppositories to use? They can really help.

 

[Guest ss556]

I'm so sorry Henry had a bad seizure, but of course it's great that it's not as frequent as before. He is very lucky to have you. Please give Henry a hug.

[Guest BoogieDown]

Ugh. I'm sorry it happened, but am really glad that it was such a long stretch of time between them. They seem like they go on forever, don't they? I used to have a golden that had them, and he fell down an entire flight of stairs once when it started. He was trying to get to me.

[Guest EmbersDad]

he may have had a seizure, but there is only one way to view it. he DID KNOT have one for 118 days. that is huge. rest up and feel better henry.

[PatricksMom]

I'm so sorry about Henry's seizure, but I'm sure it helps that you have such a great, positive attitude towards the whole thing. Henry's lucky to have such a good mom.

 

As for ice, try keeping frozen peas around, unopened, that's what I use for icepacks when I need a flexible one.

Edited February 1, 2009 by PatricksMom

[Guest hannahmom]

Henry is so very lucky to have you for a Mom

Gentle hugs to youy both

 

[Guest PreciousMom]

Sorry to hear Henry had a seizure, but 118 days is great.

 

I have a grey, Jackson that has seizures and it's great that they can be controlled so well on meds that they don't have seizures too often.

 

Take care,

Sue

Precious & Dasher's Mom

Jackson's foster Mom

[Guest EmilyAnne]

Emily, I am sorry Henry had another seizure, but 118 days is still a great span. With everything else you have going on with the house I pray Henry stays stable. Do you have the valium suppositories to use? They can really help.

We have liquid valium for inserting rectally. It was a lifesaver during Henry's cluster, literally.

 

 

he may have had a seizure, but there is only one way to view it. he DID KNOT have one for 118 days. that is huge. rest up and feel better henry.

 

 

I'm so sorry about Henry's seizure, but I'm sure it helps that you have such a great, positive attitude towards the whole thing. Henry's lucky to have such a good mom.

 

As for ice, try keeping frozen peas around, unopened, that's what I use for icepacks when I need a flexible one.

Peas would have certainly been better than nothing or that useless clump of ice I had. I will buy a super size bag of frozen peas to have on hand.

 

 

~*~*~

Good morning everybody! No more seizures since last night, and I am impressed by how much better than usual Henry is recovering. Usually his vision does not register properly with his brain for a day or more. Today his vision actually seems just fine. He's a little extra slow moving and unsure is all. Doesn't look like this will be a cluster.

 

I checked his paperwork, and of all his recorded seizures In the last two years, (1 yr of that with me) he has NEVER made it this long without a Grand-Mal!!!! So, it's still really more good news than it is bad. I dont know why it is that though Henry is the one who had the seizure, I always feel like I got run over by a mack truck afterwards. Drinking lots of coffee today.

 

 

Thank you everyone for your kind words and encouragement.

[TheFullHouse]

Well that was a good run, 118 days!!! Nice job Henry.

[Guest MZH]

That sounds like some kind of a record! I hope he continues to go another 118 or more until the next one.

 

The large bag of frozen peas is a great tip.

 

Marcia

[Guest vahoundlover]

That's a good run! Glad Henry is himself sooner than usual. That's a good sign!

[Guest EmilyAnne]

Henry had me worried for a bit a couple hours ago. He kept trying so desperately to get upstairs and seemed frightened. He tried to jump over the gate, and tried pulling the gate down. We only had one valium on hand. With the last cluster experience we had, we decided to play it safe and get more valium. DH met with the vet at her office and picked up three more doses of Valium. (we have the best vet!) Just in case we end up using the last one now and need another dose tonight. Better safe than sorry, especially as my husband will be gone from 3:15 till 11:30pm tonight. He's laying down now, relaxing to some soft music.

[Guest KyGrey]

I am another who has to say what a good mommy you are. You seem to handle everything with a calm hand. 118 days is very impressive! He is so lucky to have you for his mommy. Give him a gentle hug and give yourself a pat on the back. You sure deserve it! :

[duncan41]

How is Henry tonight? Hope he's resting comfortably! Here's hoping that the next time, we will be cheering for 148 days, at least! No more seizures! No more seizures! No more seizures!

[Guest EmilyAnne]

How is Henry tonight? Hope he's resting comfortably! Here's hoping that the next time, we will be cheering for 148 days, at least! No more seizures! No more seizures! No more seizures!

148 days would be fantastic!!! He's doing really good tonight. He has been calm and hasn't shown signs of needing the Valium yet. I am keeping a very close eye on him. I haven't left the house all day exept to scoop some poup in the backyard.

 

Last night I KNEW he was going to have a Grand-Mal and I remember panicing that the extra Phenobarbital was not going to have enough time to kick in. I am going to talk to Henry's vet about if maybe next time I should just jump straight to the Valium when Henry lets me know so urgentl like he did last night. I am fortunate Henry lets me know so clearly when he is about to seize. Other times he has let me know, but usually not so urgently, and I just gave extra Pheno, and those times the seizure was not so close and the extra Pheno was able to kick in soon enough.

[Guest RooCroo]

I am so sorry you have to go through this. We've been to hell and back with Hoovie's epilepsy. You're lucky that Henry lets you know when he feels something coming on. Sometimes Hoovie's come out of nowhere. All you can do is the best you can do, and you're a great mom. Henry is a lucky boy. Praying for another long, long seizure free time. Edited February 2, 2009 by RooCroo

[Guest lynne893]

hugs to you and henry.

[queenwinniesmom]

Oh, Emily, that must be heart wrenching to see him go through that. While it's wonderful that he'd gone so long without one, did it give you a crazy hope that maybe there wouldn't be any more? You are so intuitive where he is concerned, though. You've done so much research, and understand your sweet boy so well.

I hope he goes a long, long, long time without another one!

[Guest EmilyAnne]

Oh, Emily, that must be heart wrenching to see him go through that. While it's wonderful that he'd gone so long without one, did it give you a crazy hope that maybe there wouldn't be any more? You are so intuitive where he is concerned, though. You've done so much research, and understand your sweet boy so well.

I hope he goes a long, long, long time without another one!

Yes it did. My hope was as long as I could keep catching them in time when he let me know, that he would not have anymore. I wince that I did not stop last night's in time. I keep trying to think back to if he tried to let me know sooner and I missed it? Anyway, this was another learning experience about Henry's epilepsy, and an opportunity to tweak his treatment plan by discussing with the vet that when I am sure I don't have time for extra Pheno to kick in, even though he has not had a Grand-mal *yet*, to go ahead and give him Valium.

Edited February 2, 2009 by EmilyAnne

[greypuppyluv]

Don't know how I missed this, but I'm sorry to hear you guys had to go through this. 118 days is great, though!

 

I would agree about having the valium on hand......Jenny (sweetgsmom) has it for Aidan and it's been very helpful in shortening Aidan's seizures. Having a bag of frozen peas on hand is a great idea......I'll have to make sure I get some also to have on hand for Phaelin (we've temporarily taken him off the sodium bromide).