A Visit from a Monster

Just about a year ago, Shyla started taking phenobarbital to try to control her seizures. It took a long time before I appreciated how well it worked because it turned Shyla into a zombie. It wasn't until about six months later that I thought that she was back to about 98% of her normal self.

I'm going to pepper this post with photos from the desert to keep it happier than a discussion of seizures.

Despite the very long acclimation time, phenobarbital worked wonderfully - she had no seizures for a year, until the other night. We had some warning because a blood tested showed that the phenobarbital level in her blood had fallen below the therapeutic range late last fall. Because we didn't want to subject her to the "zombie phase" again if we didn't need to, we decided to wait to see if she had any breakthrough seizures. Darn, now it's happened.

We are waiting to hear back from our regular vet and neurologist to see if this recent seizure means that we need to increase her dose of phenobarbital. I'd rather err on the safe side so we probably need to do so. I truly hope that the zombie phase isn't as long it was when she started phenobarbital. Does anyone have experience with this to share?

Since her seizure in the wee hours of Sunday, she has had no more seizures and seems to feel good. That's good news because she used have clusters of seizures - which were no fun for anyone.

Shyla has proven herself to be amazingly resilient over the years. From a rough start in life, she is plagued by myriad fears yet she's figured out how to navigate our world with happiness (most of the time).

I have little doubt that she'll continue her resilient ways no matter what happens.