Henna was 2 years old when she was admitted to the hospital with a traumatic brain injury. She had been thrown against a concrete wall by her biological father for crying too long. She had two depressed skull fractures, old blood on the brain from previous abuse, a lacerated liver, collapsed lung, suspected sexual abuse, and shaken baby syndrome. Henna coded while on the way to the hospital via helicopter and was brought back to life only to go into surgery to relieve pressure on her brain. She was not expected to live through the night. Henna was in a coma for one month hanging on to life. Then the miracle happened! Henna woke up and was able to move all her limbs and speak, shocking all of the medical professionals. We took Henna into our home and shortly after her arrival she started having seizures.
Henna's journey continues as we try to control her seizures. She received the Vagus Nerve Stimulator (VNS) on Feb. 4, 2011 at Children's Hospital inWashington, DC. The VNS will send an electrical impulse to Henna's brain every 3 minutes for 30 seconds to interrupt her seizures. Over two months we have increased the electrical current and we have seen no change in her seizure activity. It looks as though Henna is in the third of children who receive a VNS that sees no relief from the VNS. We are very disappointed! We have started her on a new medication in addition to her current medications. Maybe it will help.
On August 6th, 2012, Henna had a full corpus callosotomy. This surgery is for people who have generalized seizures with no focal point. The corpus callosum is a band of nerve fibers located deep in the brain that connects the two halves (hemispheres) of the brain. It helps the hemispheres share information, but it also contributes to the spread of seizure impulses from one side of the brain to the other. A corpus callosotomy is an operation that severs (cuts) the corpus callosum, interrupting the spread of seizures from hemisphere to hemisphere. Seizures generally do not completely stop after this procedure (they continue on the side of the brain in which they originate). However, the seizures usually become less severe, as they cannot spread to the opposite side of the brain.
Henna received a white Labradoodle, Leo, from 4 Paws for Ability in Oct. 2010. We sent 4 Paws 2 shirts a week to help train her dog. One shirt was when Henna had a seizure and they used it for her dog to smell the chemical change during her seizure. The other shirt was when Henna had NOT had a seizure. This helped her dog differentiate between the two scents.It's a fascinating process. We trained for 10 day in Ohio with Leo and a trainer before bringing Leo home.
Leo had been going to school with Henna but started to bark and growl at different people when they came into her classroom. We worked with Leo's barking and growling when people would knock on the door and for a while he seemed better. He is very protective at home also. He then barked and growled at some boys who came into Henna's classroom and had to be removed from school. The trainer at 4 Paws said that some dogs bond so closely with their child that they become protective. Leo took on Henna's classroom as another home and felt he had to protect her. Sadly, because of his aggressive behavior, Leo can no longer be a service dog. The trainer said Leo would behave lthat way with any child he bonded to. Just his nature. We will keep Leo as a pet. Leo LOVES being just a pet. He still alerts to Henna's seizures and lives to get his hot dog reward!
Henna now has Snoball, a beautiful Golden Retriever. Snoball was born June 3, 2011. She is so sweet and a bundle of energy! Sno is doing an excellent job alerting to Henna's seizures BEFORE she has them! She is alerting up to one hour before Henna has a seizure. Sno goes to school with Henna and proudly wears her school ID badge. Snoball will be a great seizure alert dog and will serve Henna well.
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Interesting night at the hotel. We decided to eat dinner in our room. Henna and Sno played ball and with her toys. We worked on basic commands, especially having Sno stay in a down. She wants to break her down position and do her own thing. I will have to find another way to motivate Sno to do what she's suppose to do. I have a tendency to have a flat tone when I give a command so I'm going to try to have more inflection in my voice. Maybe she'll take me more seriously. I took Sno out before bed and then she was wandering around at 4:00 am so I took her out again and she did her business. A little later Sno threw up. So fun! I couldn't get Sno to sleep on Henna's bed so I put her mat by Henna's bed. I think the bedspread was slippery and she didn't like that. I'll put a blanket on the bed tonight. Henna is having a hard time letting me handle Sno. She feels Sno is her dog so she should be able to do everything I do. It doesn't help that she has PMS and morphs into an ogre a week before her period. Shriek looks like a prince compared to Henna! Ha! We worked on "place" today. The dog will go a Mutt Mat and can do anything on the mat as long as he keeps 2 paws on the mat. We then worked on the "come" command which is only used to get a dog in from the back yard or in an instance where a dog may run out the front door. More of an emergency command. Sno did well but began to anticipate the command. Smart girl. Jeremy showed the class retrieving which one of the dogs is trained to do for her boy who is in a wheel chair. A college student has a trained hearing dog, a Papillon, who will alert her when someone knocks on the door, calls her name, when an alarm goes off, etc. The girl will then sign "where" to the dog and the dog will take her to who called her name or what the alert was. Fascinating!!! We ended the day working on seizure work, Henna helped by pretending to have a seizure and Sno responded by barking. All the dogs were fit with their working harnesses. Sno didn't mind hers. I remember when Leo got his and he pouted from the very beginning. I guess he never wanted to be a service dog and why he chewed through 5 or more harnesses before being retired.
Henna was in a better mood today and much more loving to Sno. Although Sno didn't alert to any of Henna's seizures today, she did watch for her when she went off to play and she wanted to keep an eye on her. The bonding is happening! I'm praying for a peaceful night. Sno played with her sibs at lunch time so hopefully she'll be tired and sleep all night. Tomorrow we go to the mall to work the dogs.
Sno and Cloud begging for food.
Alerting to a sound.
Taking her owner to the sound.
Lapping and then falling asleep!
Henna was in a better mood today and much more loving to Sno. Although Sno didn't alert to any of Henna's seizures today, she did watch for her when she went off to play and she wanted to keep an eye on her. The bonding is happening! I'm praying for a peaceful night. Sno played with her sibs at lunch time so hopefully she'll be tired and sleep all night. Tomorrow we go to the mall to work the dogs.
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