Hi all. Since the last update, things went fairly well through January.
Very unfortunately though, through February so far, Ziggy has deteriorated extremely quickly and we were quickly beginning to lose control.
Over the past few weeks, he has been paw licking more and more, he has had episodes of paw licking where it became so intense that he began to cry while chewing. Vestibular episodes seem to be coming back (but his legs seem to be affected by this? They go all weird and such), his eyes are going red on and off.
There has also been 2 extremely bad pain episodes over the past week, they were manic and really scary. The first one he had was yesterday where he began to do his typical face scratching which then progressed to air scratching while running manic around the house looking terrified. He was also feeling really sick as I saw him licking his lips etc. The second episode happened Thursday where he started face scratching and then asked to go outside right after where he ran down the garden clearly in pain and collapsed at the end chewing his leg really really intensely, you could literally see his head shaking while doing it, then for a further 3 minutes we tried to get him walking round the house and his 2 back legs just wouldnt move, and if they would it would only be for a few seconds where he'd collapse in pain and begin chewing. To be quite honest, I don't think I have ever seen him so scared.
Seeing these issues arising again, we rang Stephanie on Thursday and she said she needs to see him tomorrow (Friday) to assess him for a new medication (Frusemide). She did warn us, this might not be an option as he might not be in fit enough health for his kidneys to deal with the medication.
We have also noticed theres a scab where he usually scratches when he has his head scratching episodes and have noticed a scab there, so that gives you an idea of how frantic the scratching can become when it happens.
So, Friday came and we went in to see Stephanie, she gave him an assessment like she did when we first started seeing her and he did well and (weirdly enough!) passed with flying colors! She said that he has developed no significant changes since she last saw him (which probably would have been around this time last year if I recall correctly) which is rather unusual given the circumstances...
She did the leg test where she picks up the paws to see if he can place them back correctly, which he passed with the back left leg but the back right seemed to be a bit more trouble for him although she didnt seem to think that held any significance. Just thought I'd mention that incase that might come of use for something.
When we were talking about his medications, she asked whether or not he was still on his anti sickness tablets so we confirmed that he still was and she was pleased because she said that studies have found to see a small improvement in SM/CM cases where they have this particular anti sickness medication! Again, just thought id mention that incase that might come of any use to anyone reading.
One thing she did want to do before putting him on the medication is take a blood test to assure that there isnt any problems underlying which may be compounding things and to also make sure that his body can take up to the Frusemide she wants to put him on. We will be getting the results on Monday or Tuesday so we'l keep you posted on that! She did warn us however, the medication she suggested will either do a lot, or not very much at all and may not help him. If this case scenario arises, she suggested we put him back on an extremely small dose of steroid but then when we mentioned he started having that colitis on the lowest dose, that was ruled out. She then suggested we put up the gabapentin to 4 tablets every time we give it him seeing as he isnt doped up by any of this (which he isnt, nothing seems to scratch him dopiness wise
) but she did warn that this might not be too helpful.
We definitely realise we are running a bit short on solutions, we are just making the most of our time with him now (like we've been doing for the past year since hes just completely surpassed our expectations! One things for sure, we had absolutely no expectation that hed be here in 2015 in any way shape or form, yet here we are) and carefully monitoring his condition to be sure he is living a happy life. Which presently, he is. Although if these episodes hes had start to come back and we cant do anything to suppress them, we feel that we will have to start thinking seeing how terrified he was by the last 2.
However (typical Ziggy! :lol: ) he has improved
gigantically since Thursday!
These episodes he was having (although this was only 2 days in a row, but we were worried about them being more consistent seeing as they were so painful and scary for him
) completely stopped and he has been extremely comfortable since. When I say extremely comfortable, you can tell he just seems so much more settled and having more peaceful sleeps. On Saturday he asked to come up on the sofa with me and he slept right across my lap for a good hour or so and had a really good sleep in the process which was lovely to see after those episodes.
In light of these developments, we have decided to ring Stephanie when the results come through and ask her if we can start the medication when (or if, it is early days yet) the episodes start consistently again. So safe to say, the past week has been a bit... Tiring to say the least! lol
Anyway, I hope all your packs are doing alright! Il keep you all posted.