Setbacks

We suffered a setback today. After about a month with no seizures, Seizure Dog had 3 today in about 12 hours. The first one was at 3 this morning, the last around 3 this afternoon. He's also had almost three times his normal medication. I'm having a little pity party because I'm 100 miles away stuck in a hotel and my husband has had to deal with it all by himself. Yes, he's a big boy. No, it wouldn't be any different if I were home. No, I couldn't do anything that he isn't doing. But yes, I do wish I were there. I could hold the dog's head to keep him from hurting himself. I could feed him ice cream to pump his glucose back up after the seizure. I could just hold him and try to give comfort. I could give my husband a break so he could rest.

But here I sit.

Setbacks can be tough to handle. We'd been rocking along; thinking all was well. Proud of ourselves for rescuing another of God's creatures. So pleased that it had been so easy.

Sometimes we need those "reminders". We're not always in charge. Contrary to popular belief. Its tough to step back. To "let go and let God". We all like to have a certain amount of control. Not everyone is a control freak, but to totally let go is really tough as well. Its all in how we handle the setback. Do we regress? or fight harder? Do we accept the changes needed? or are we stubborn and insist our way is better? Do we reach out for help, and accept that which is given? Or do we give up and forget all about doing whatever it is? Setbacks are sometimes good things. They can serve as an opportunity to reassess, adjust, and attack the problem anew.

For us, I know that we didn't do anything in this case to cause the seizures. We have searched the house for any kind of triggers, kept logs of circumstances when there were seizures looking for commonalities. We've set reminders to keep the medication on the same daily schedule. I hope, for the little dog's sake, that this setback is very temporary. My wish is that he'll be up and running with the pack again tomorrow - more heavily medicated that he was yesterday - but back to his old self. And we'll take all the information in and see what we do need to do differently to change the course and stay on it.