A change in the pattern

Roxy had a seizure last night, but it didn’t follow the pattern she’s established over the last few months.  We woke up to the sound of her convulsing at the bottom of the stairs.  I’d only been asleep for less than an hour (it was just about 11pm), but I guess it was a deep sleep already ’cause it took me WAY too long to figure out what was happening.  John got downstairs before me and was trying to get a pillow under her head.  The seizure lasted the usual amount of time (over 30 seconds, under a minute), and when it was over, she stayed on the floor, on her side, for a little bit (again as usual) but after only 3 or 4 minutes, definitely less than five, she got up.  That’s way quicker than usual, and instead of getting up and being completely out of it for another 20 minutes or more, she was almost completely herself.  Actually, she was herself and a little more.  She seemed a bit manic.  Over-excited.  Hyper, kind of.  But she answered to her name, she sat when I asked her to, she begged for treats…she was basically normal.  So after another ten minutes or so, we went back to bed.

Why is she different?  I can only assume it’s the change in her medication.  We started the zonisamide last Monday night (the 12th) and started giving her half of her usual phenobarbitol dose at the same time.  This past Monday (the 19th), we cut out the phenobarbitol altogether.  Hopefully, we’ll go back to infrequent seizures (or non-existent) on the new medication.  Hopefully.  Last night’s wasn’t a cluster seizure, either, and we’ll just have to see if she has any more today.