Monday, April 18, 2011

The Way It Works...

Isn't it funny the way it works? We reach out to those who care in times of trouble or need. We don't call or write (or blog) when things are going great. We get caught up in 'life' and stay wrapped up in our day to day patterns until something throws a curve ball at us. Well, Gracie's pitching up a storm at our home! She has started having seizures. We were told by the neurologist that the further out we got from her 1 year birthday, the more chance she had to live her life free of seizures. A little background, in case you forgot, Gracie had a seizure shortly after being strangled by a wire and had oxygen loss to her brain. She bit off a little chunk of her upper lip on either side of her mouth during the seizure. You can see it if you look closely at her pictures. To us, it's just a part of what makes Gracie look like Gracie. Anyway, we were thinking we, and more importantly, Gracie, had finally had some good luck and weren't going to have to deal with seizures. This was obviously not part of God's plan for Gracie and, as usual, we will take His plan and work with it the best we know how. Now, for the details. David thought she might have had one in November (hindsight always brings more to light) but he hadn't seen it so he wasn't sure. He told me she came into the living room and seemed disoriented and acted strange. It passed and with so much of Gracie's behavior, we chalked it up to the 'Neuro Damage' (we pin alot on that! :o). Nothing happened again until March. On March 13, she was sleeping on Sydney's bed with her and at about 11pm we heard a loud crash. When we got to Syd's room, Gracie was on the floor but was not seizing. She had fallen off of the bed. She was foaming at the mouth and panting. She was also pretty disoriented and restless. We got her in the living room but she wouldn't lay down. She wanted to walk around and kept panting for about 5 more minutes. I documented this on the calendar and prayed she had just been dreaming and managed to fall off the bed. On April 2nd, I was in bed reading at about 11pm and heard muffled thumping through the wall. I immediately thought she was having a seizure and ran to Addie's room where she was sleeping on the bed with her. David was already there with her and had witnessed the end of the seizure. She had managed to move from the foot of the bed up to the head of the bed. Again, more foaming at the mouth, panting and restlessness. After we get her calmed down, she sleeps hard for the rest of the night. There was no denying this one had been a seizure and definitely made us think the other incident had been one, too. Again, I was praying it was a fluke since we had only witnessed one true seizure but this weekend she seemed to have something happen. It was late at night again but she actually came out into the living room. She didn't seem nearly as disoriented as before but did have some foam around her mouth and was panting. The decision was made then to take her to the vet today. We are going at 2pm so keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I will let you all know what he says. More thank likely, she will need to be on meds for awhile, if not for the rest of her life. David and I look on the bright side...we don't really have to go through testing to find out why she is having seizures. With her health history, it's a wonder she hasn't had them sooner. I was just really hoping our tiny gray girl (who isn't so tiny anymore!) wouldn't have this additional issue to deal with. But, we know she is in God's hands and that he has a plan for her. This picture is of Miley and Gracie. Gracie is the one in the top of the picture. She has gotten big...about 60 pounds now. They are always together. Miley looks after her and Gracie seems to take alot of cues from Miley. They are a pair!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I will keep Gracie and you guys in my prayers. Thanks for keeping us informed.

Becky R said...

sorry you all are having such concerns with one of your "kids". I know that the dogs are very much a part of your family like ours. Wish good news for Gracie.