Earning His Keep...Or, The Scent Of Seizures

I really feel like we have not had a lot of opportunity to talk to the other families. As I mentioned in the last post, Cole is kind of high maintenance, no surprise there. We also are the last ones to leave for lunch due to all of our paraphernalia that we cart around for our mobile ER. So, we don't end up eating with anyone else. Which is probably a good thing, since Cole has hardly had a square meal since we left home. Who wants to eat when there are so many other distractions? Having other kids around would probably add to this.

So, after class today I took Slugger outside to socialize a little bit with his friends and I could talk for a minute with a couple of the other parents before we headed back to the hotel. I was having a conversation about Dravet Syndrome with another parent when I saw a staff member running towards us yelling, "We need Slugger!". He then told me that Cole was inside having a seizure.

We had talked in class about having everything be a game for the dogs. They don't really understand the serious nature of their jobs. They have no idea that they are service dogs, or that their child is missing while they are tracking, or a seizure is life-threatening. So, I tried to hype it up and kept telling Slugger, "Let's go buddy! Let's go find your boy! Come on, good job buddy!" as we ran to the center.

Cole was seizing on the couch. Slugger kind of went up and checked it out, but was more interested in other things and probably the tense feeling in the room. We could not expect him to do everything picture perfect, like directing a movie the first time. You constantly have to make adjustments. I actually made a mistake by running in with him.

Slugger had previously been wrestling with the other dogs and then with his run into the training area, he was breathing really hard. The trainer compared it to running up to someone who just finished a marathon and shoving something under their nose saying, "Smell that!" It is impossible to smell well with your mouth open. Of course, he was panting and breathing hard after all of his activity and he could not sniff Cole up and down like he normally would have. He did not do intense sniffing, or bark.However, we do know that Slugger has the potential and capability to alert. He alerted to a little boy next to us (with sniffing and licking), who was having seizures while sleeping. Also, when Brian took him outside for a potty break he went over to a bush and was going crazy. Brian looked inside and saw a leftover seizure shirt, from a training that was going on with another group of dogs earlier in the day. Slugger had found the shirt in the bush and was behaving appropriately, even though no one had said anything about it.

We actually think that he possibly alerted to Cole's seizure. He was over by me, Cole was sitting on the stairs playing on the iPad. I had him in a down, but he jumped up and went over to Cole and started to smell him all over, especially his head and ear. We encouraged the behavior, because of bonding, but did not see it as alerting. He was acting a little different than when he had alerted to our neighbor. We happened to grab a picture.About 20-30 minutes later is when Cole had his seizure. It lasted probably around 10 minutes and was a milder tonic-clonic. We did have Slugger get up on the couch with him while he was post-ictal.The body's chemistry changes during a seizure. Sometimes, dogs can alert up to a couple of hours before. Hopefully, we will get to the point where Slugger understands Cole's cues, and we understand his. All in all though, I am grateful that it happened at 4 Paws and that the trainers were still there to walk us through it. I had a lot of questions.

Cole was already coming out of it by the time we pulled out of 4 Paws. He was asking for Incredibles, telling us what to do and drinking his milk.It seems that Slugger was totally interested in the iPad playing movies in the car. Bug (one of his nicknames) is going to have to become a Disney fan, quick.We practiced more when we finally got home. This is just as much work as I thought it was going to be.

Cole has had a great time tonight at the hotel doing things including trying to brush Slugger's teeth with Daddy's electric toothbrush and riding Slugger as he jumped off of the bed (ouch)! Slugger was great and started to kiss and comfort him when he was crying.He talks to him and wants to know exactly where he is. I think that the bonding is going well! We'll make certain that Slugger doesn't become lazy and keeps working hard ;) Our life is an adventure!