Seizure #16 on 7/12/07 at 8:15 PM.
Milk was sleeping on my computer chair when it started. This time, the seizure included mild jerking of his body, as well as the foaming. He let me pick him up and clean his face off, and then wanted down to pace. After a minute or so, he began the meowing, too. He ate an entire can of cat food, and then did more pacing and meowing with much more volume and urgency.
I had talked to the vet today about the apparent mini-seizures (which this one was NOT); he seems unconcerned as long as they're occurring occasionally, but he doesn't seem to see it as an increasingly distressing problem, which I do. Probably because I"m watching the horror go on. (I know that medical people define "controlled" seizure activity as happening once a month or so; we're way beyond that already, though.) I mentioned getting phenobarb blood levels done again, and he thought that it wasn't necessary for another few weeks.
I am seriously thinking about having the MRI done. The problem is, I don't know if we then become long-distance patients of a neurologist who will never actually see Milk in person or not. And if not, are we any better off? Should I contact Ohio State, where people who've been there complained about the waiting and the student involvement? I don't know what to do. I just know that I'm getting scared at the reappearance and the frequency of seizures that is going on, and someone needs to do something. I'm starting to think that maybe I should get a prescription for the rectal valium to have on hand in case this gets out of control. Tomorrow, of course, is Friday, when the vet is closed.
Miniseizure #17, 7/13/07 at 8:30 PM Again he was napping in my computer chair. I had just started to test Scruffy, so by the time I got done and found the camera, Milk was pretty much done. There was foaming, and some jerking and jaw snapping, but by the time I got there, he was still. Sort of out of it, and staring into space. He got down and paced from the kitchen to the living room and back again, with a little meowing, and then wanted food. He ate almost a whole can of Fancy Feast. It's interesting that his physical control and coordination seem to be a little better/steadier after a seizure.
It has occurred to me that the miniseizures and the regular seizures have started again since I got a new prescription for phenobarb from Costco last week - on July 7th. It was a different size and shape pill (and a 16.2 mg pill, according to the pharmacist at CVS) from the one I got at Giant Eagle, and the manufacturer's name on the label was different. I didn't note here exactly when I started noticing the "mini-seizures", but it has been within the last week. I called the pharmacist at CVS tonight and asked her if it might seem likely that the difference in generics might affect seizure activity, and she seemed to think it was a possibility. I plan to take Milk to the vet tomorrow to get blood to check his phenobarbital level, and I want to ask for another prescription to get the previous brand of generic at Giant Eagle again. It would be awful/wonderful if the problem turned out to just be the brand of phenobarb.
A short video of the post seizure period tonight:
http://s142.photobucket.com/albums/r109/olgemac/Milkshake/?action=view¤t=3f429532.flv
