I know a little about seizures because our wonderful German Shepard has suffered with this illness for a few years. Unfortunately she doesn’t have health insurance and so we have paid enormous amounts of money in diagnosing her condition, as well as buying her medications.
Our Bodie, like you, only had a few seizures to begin with. We were able to keep them under control, but then things escalated. She ended up having seizures on a monthly basis; we jokingly started calling her Luna, in a reference to lunatic…. whereby these seizures happened on a monthly basis.
After months of agony, not to mention great expense, our emergency Vet suggested we try Tufts Foster School of Medicine. We brought her to the University and they, after hours of consultation, eliminated causes for the seizures.
First, they ruled out a malignancy…no brain tumors, etc. Then they ruled out trauma…no substantial injuries that would cause this condition. They couldn’t rule out genetics because we didn’t have a history of what happened to her littermates. And so, like you, this esteemed staff decided that these were, like you, “idiosyncratic” seizures.
After 3 hours of consultation the amazing staff recommended a new drug called Keppra. We had been giving Bodie the usual pheno-barb, but it didn’t prove successful. Since we have begun this new medication we have noticed vast improvement and Bodie has had far fewer seizures and no cluster seizures (which is a really bad thing, as you may have been told).
And yet, with all this new information and new medication…my husband and I never leave her for extended periods of time because she needs medication on a systematic basis. We don’t go on vacations any more, we limit our time away from her during the day. If we must leave her for extended periods of time we bring her to our vet, where she is monitored throughout the day. If there is an emergency they are able to provide a pheno-barb drip and make sure her vital signs are OK. If she has a seizure at night we have a 24 emergency clinic that we bring her to, at a princely sum. But she’s worth it.
Bodie is a dog. You, sir, are the head of the Supreme Court. Perhaps it’s not appropriate to have someone at the helm of the Supremes, who at a moment’s notice, would need emergency care. It’s something to think about, but, as our vet said, “Seizures change your way of life. For people, even riding the train or driving a car can be an enormous problem.” He went on to say., “Seizures are not life threatening, but they change your way of life.” I believe, right now, we do not need a Supreme Court justice who has to worry about his health when the health of this country is at stake. Please take care of yourself, but think about the possible problems your illness presents to us all.