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Banana had a seizure at 2:30 Saturday morning. I had sort of been trying to convince myself the first ones were a fluke and he wasn't epileptic, but I guess that is not the case. I spent most of Saturday wallowing. It's just not FAIR! He's so sweet and loving and ornery and hilarious and cute! Why does this have to be happening to this cat? 

Look how little and cute he was. 

Anyway, I'm better today. The people on the epileptic cat forum say that as long as the seizures are 6 weeks or so apart, that's considered controlled. So I guess now we just wait to see what happens. For the past two days he's actually been really calm and affectionate, even closer to what I would consider a Normal Banana than he has been since this all began. We have options - we can increase his Keppra, or add other medications - if his seizures are frequent. 

But it sucks. Waiting to see what will happen, not knowing, the fact that it's happening at all. Bummer times a thousand. 

A New Chili Glaze

I have a chili glazed tofu recipe I make a lot but decided to try this new one from the Cooking for Two book. It's crusted with cornstarch and corn meal before frying, too, whereas my standby is just sautéed. 

I served it over rice mixed with edamame and fiery sesame oil. It was great!

Drunken Noodles

Here is another delicious thing I made from that Cooking for Two cookbook: drunken noodles with chicken and bok choy. 

It called for rice noodles but I thought egg noodles would be better so I used them instead. It worked great!

Cooking for Two

For the past month or so I've been obsessed with The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook. I got it from the library and after a week's worth of recipes ordered it from Amazon. I don't really know much about cooking meat and it has a really comprehensive range of ingredients and cuisines. I also love that it only makes enough for two portions, so I'm not tempted to overeat and/or don't end up with a bunch of leftovers. I've done a poor job of taking pictures but here is one thing I made last week, a summer quinoa/corn chowder with avocado and cheese.

I like the book so much I'm considering going through the entire thing in a systematic way, checking off the recipes like I haven't done since Appetite for Reduction!

In other news, I don't have any new pictures of him but Banana's recovery since coming off the phenobarbital completely has been pretty stunning. He is back to being a curious, affectionate pain in the ass, jumping on top of the 6-foot bookcases and knocking things off the counters onto the floor. Sometimes he scratches for a few seconds but never to the point where I'm worried he's going to hurt himself, and it's getting better all the time. He still has about a week before the drug will be completely out of his system, and we're pretty optimistic that he'll be completely over the itching by then. It's amazing. AMAZING. I guess when you stop giving an animal a medication to which he's allergic, the results are going to be pretty positive.

Deep fryin'

A few years ago I got Ben a deep fryer for his birthday. It's kind of a pain to deal with but since we're back on meat we keep getting it out to make fish tacos. 

It's worth it. Every time. 

Catch you later, phenobarbital!

Today is the first phenobarbital-free day of Banana's life since May 5th. It has been an extremely long and stressful road for this entire household. I tapered more slowly than the neurologist even recommended, stretching out another two weeks based on recommendations from the epileptic cat owners' forum I belong to. The overall trend over the last couple of weeks especially has been positive for sure, although he does still have some minor itchy issues that bother him from time to time. 

Personality and mobility wise, though, he is much, much better. His coordination and balance are completely normal, which was never the case when he was on a therapeutic dose of phenobarb. 

He's also curious and active again, playing with Papaya and running to the windows to look at birds. 

So now we just have to wait and see if the itchiness goes away completely over the next couple of weeks. The phenobarb will stay in his system for at least that long yet. If he's still itching after that, we can look into other things - food allergy, maybe? - but I am 100% confident we've done the right thing getting him off phenobarbital. 

I feel like I have my cat back, finally. For now, I guess - I am still holding my breath a little bit. At least his issues are infrequent and tolerable for the time being. And hopefully by mid-August they'll be gone completely! If not, well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.