The confluence of two really good tries.

On Monday we fly to LA to see Dr. DeGiorgio for our twice yearly check in.  Dr. Italian introduced the Trigeminal Stimulator a few years ago.  I heard about it on NPR when we were already in California for the aforementioned stab-in-the-dark treatment with the Osteopath.  Cesare has been in the UCLA study now for almost two years.  In the first six months we saw a decrease in seizures of about 30%.  That was success!  After the first year, I couldn't tell anymore if it was helping.  Ces has been so unstable...who knows.  But, his enrollment in the study and the need to fly him out to California twice a year gives us  a sort of moral, ethical excuse to vacation in California.  We routinely spend one hour at UCLA and then a week in San Diego.  We must... you understand.  There must be some perks to being an epilepsy family.

What makes these trips tremendously more fun for us is taking Walden, Cesare's service dog.  He's the sweet, sweet heart given to us by Canine Assistants in Atlanta.  Ces waited three and a half years for this guy.  Trained as a seizure response dog, Walden never gets a chance to show us his stuff because he doesn't recognize Ces' seizures.  Walden audibly snores through them.  He is my son's gentle best friend nevertheless.  And the only thing more joyful than being woken in the mornng by a happy Golden's tail slapping  against the comforter is being woken by two happy Golden's slapping their tails against the bed.  Ella joined the band 18 months ago. 

Walden and Ces

Please don't ask me how (if I told you I'd have to kill you) but we fly both dogs out with us to California when we go.  San Diego loves their dogs and have whole beaches dedicated to them.  Happy for us.  

Dr. DeGiorgio may not let Ces stay in the trial once he gets a load of the seizure numbers over these last six months...they are all over the place.  And Walden may never run for the phone after one of Cesare's seizures but the confluence of the two move me to offer a rare nod to epilepsy for this one purely joyful event twice a year.