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It all started on a regular Sunday night. Mommy was in the bedroom reading and daddy was watching TV & eating bacon! I remember because I was watching him very closely just in case a piece happened to drop my way. That happens when daddy eats sometimes! After he was done, I decided to go to the back bedroom and go to sleep. Mommy fell asleep reading, it had been another busy weekend!
All of a sudden I had a really crazy feeling come over me so I ran out to daddy to tell him. The next thing that I knew, I was slamming up against the wall and going into convulsions. Daddy didn’t know what the heck was going on! He screamed to mommy “Jack is having a seizure!!!!”, mommy said later that she fell out of the bed in shock and crawled half way down the hallway trying to get to me.
She got there and said that I looked like a stuffed animal! Daddy was holding me and I was stiff and shaking and my mouth was open really wide. They didn’t know if I was choking or what the heck was going on! When I was done, mommy grabbed me and I kind of fell asleep and she freaked out thinking I was dying.
She immediately called her friend who is a vet and she said to go to VSH ( Veterinary Speciality Hospital ) so mommy and daddy dashed out of the house. All the lights were on, the TV was on and daddy didn’t even bring any shoes!
We got to VSH & they took me in the back to keep an eye on me. The nice lady vet explained to mommy and daddy that there are two types of seizures: 1/ Cardiac 2/ Neurological. A Cardiac one only lasts a few seconds and the dog faints. A Neurological one lasts a few minutes and the dog can act a variety of ways afterwards. They may be disorientated, tired and in my case hungry!
Mommy and daddy took me home and fed me and we all went to bed. It was scary and mommy was just hoping that we were “one and done” and that would never happen again!
The rest of the week was pretty normal. Daddy was paranoid so he slept outside of my crate on the floor every night but other than that, life went on as normal EXCEPT mommy had to leave on a plane and go somewhere without me! That has not happened in a long time so I was a little confused why I couldn’t go. I got to go to work with daddy and Aunt Gigi took good care of me and gave me treats so it was not all bad!
Thursday came around and that night, the same thing happened again! I ran out to daddy and had another seizure! Since I had already had one, I was scared knowing what was going to happen. Daddy stayed calm and got me through it. I didn’t know where mommy was and why she was not helping daddy. I started crying and howling and I kept looking for her all over the house. Daddy didn’t know what to do so he called mommy, it was 2 a.m. where she was but she didn’t care. She had just arrived 2 hours earlier and it was killing her that she was not home with me. She did this thing called facetime to try to talk to me and I could hear her but I could not see her. I was so confused!
Since it was 2 a.m., mommy consulted Dr. Google and realized that this was normal behavior after a seizure. Dr. Google also said that I should eat protein and carbs because my blood sugar may be low. Mommy told daddy to make me some Honest Kitchen, let me eat and then turn all of the lights off and go to bed. That worked and daddy and I went to bed with him sleeping on the floor again.
The next morning my nice vet, Kathy Kaleka from Governor Animal Clinic called mommy and told her that I needed to go see a neurologist. That sounded scary but daddy stepped up to the plate and he took me back to VSH. It was killing mommy that she was not home with me and she spent the entire day trying to figure out what the heck was going on! We have so many friends and since mommy was posting on her Leash Your Fitness Facebook page, our friends were helping her to get through this.
The Dr. Neurologist said everything looked ok when he did his tests on me in the office but I needed something called a MRI to rule out a brain tumor. He said when seizures start when a dog is young, it probably means that the dog has epilepsy but if they start when the dog is older, chances are that it is a brain tumor. Man! That sounds scary! Mommy was on the phone while the doctor was talking so she could hear what he was saying so they scheduled the MRI for Monday when mommy was going to be home. I left there with a new medicine, Phenobarbital, that would help decrease the seizure activity.
I waited by the door for a long time waiting for mommy to come home on Saturday!
Mommy was so happy to be home late Saturday night and I was so excited to see her. I ran and ran and ran around the house and I even gave mommy a couple of kisses! It was such a happy day! The only part that I did not like was mommy and daddy kept hugging me for days. Stop it! I don’t like being hugged!
Mommy and I had a fun weekend and I even met a new friend. At 200 lbs, I decided I want him on my team!
Monday morning came and mommy and daddy dressed me up in my new bowtie and took me back to that scary place and this time they left me there! I didn’t understand why they would do that when mommy just got home!
The people there were very nice and because mommy had been posting this whole series of events on her facebook page, one of her friends had a connection in Radiology that got a photo of me so mommy could see me!
It was a long day for mommy but she decided to run the entire time I was in that big MRI machine. Mommy had not been running since I stopped running with her while we dealt with my arthritis in my paws but she was like Forest Gump and just ran and ran and ran! She ran 7 miles while I was in that machine! She had to get her mind right and only think positive thoughts although she said it was not the same running on the trails without me.
Dr. Levitsky from VSH called as soon as the MRI was done and told mommy the dreaded news that she did not want to hear. They found a growth on the right side of my brain and that is what is causing the seizures. It is 2″ by 2″ by 1/4″ and it is pushing against my brain and wrecking havoc in there.
She suggested that they do a spinal tap to see if it was inflammatory or cancer or something like this. This is where mommy got a little lost but she said DO IT.
Mommy was so confused as to what was going on. The nice doctor was talking so fast and even though mommy was taking notes, she didn’t understand how this was happening and what it all meant. The Dr. was saying words like “plaque like meningioma”, “thickening of meninges”, “2 months to live”, “with treatment, depending on what it is, maybe 18 months to 24 months to live”. My vet called mommy right away and explained things a little better and said that she was happy we did the spinal tap because that would determine the treatment.
Mommy picked me up and the nice vet tech showed her the MRI pictures and explained to her that the tumor was in the meninges and causing the seizures. It turns out that Meningioma is the most common brain tumor in dogs. She said I now had to take another medication called Prednisone so decrease the inflammation. I don’t take ANY medications and now I am taking two! Mommy was not happy about that so she went home and did a ton of research on this. She knows that there are always side effects to every medication so we don’t take them nor do we get vaccinations, only titers. Mommy and I were both confused why this was happening?!
That was Monday. We got the results on Tuesday afternoon. She said it was negative. Mommy thought that was good news, but it wasn’t. It meant it was negative for inflammatory and positive for cancer. Specifically a meningeal mass and even though they described it as “benign”, meaning it won’t spread to other parts of the body, it still contains cancer cells.
Mommy was very sad but also very mad. We had lost so many of our Leash Your Fitness friends to cancer this year and it was heartbreaking each and every time. Mommy took each and every one of those dogs deaths very hard. I had seen her cry and cry and cry. Now she was so mad!
She immediately reached out to everyone she knew to find out what to do so we could KILL THIS SUCKER!
We are then going to start planning on our next Jack’s Journey USA and this time we are going to do something for dog cancer. We have got to figure this mess out & help others! It doesn’t seem to matter what we eat or do, it hits all of us and it seems to just be getting worse!
It was just a few Octobers ago that I was dock diving in Mammoth and I WILL be doing it again!
You can read about our NEXT STEP where we will give you more information about the cancer and the treatment options. We want to keep you informed because we want to help you in case this ever happens to your dog. Plus, we also found out that my brother, Nutty, has something going on with his spleen! It happened the same time as I was getting my MRI and finding out about my brain! Stay tuned on that info as well! It has been a very crazy week!
We love you and THANK YOU so much for your prayers, positive thought and support. It REALLY means a lot to us and is really helping mommy get through this!
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