Bill's back

Bill's back. He left for parts unknown yesterday but this time it was a short trip. Bill's MS sometimes does strange things to his cognitive abilities and anytime he has a fever or an infection, takes too much of one of his meds, gets dehydrated or too hot, his symptoms get a lot worse for a period of time. He can't transfer or follow instructions, loses control of his arms, can't reply to questions and in general is impossible to deal with. It's very scary. Sometimes, like yesterday, it is only for a few hours. I was able to get him to the hospital before he was not able to get in and out of the car (sometimes we find him on the floor, then we have to call the paramedics).
This time all they did was test him for infections and watch him. He was not so far out of it that he needed a sedative. Other times, he has needed a heavy dose of Ativan so he won't fall out of the bed or hurt himself. He took a long HARD nap mid-afternoon and when he woke up, for some reason he was much better. By the time my sister Joan showed up with hamburgers from In n Out, he was making sense again, and the hamburger and strawberry milk shake (his favorite) brought him completely back to earth again. We went home about 9, after stopping for a burrito. For some reason he was still really hungry.
Kudos to Kaiser this time. Even though we were there for hours, the nurses and ER doctor were
very nice and very kind. Dr. Yi, who was the internist who came to see him about 8:30, was amazingly nice and explained all the lab results to me. I had never had that happen before. Someone brought me one of those lovely warm blankets at one point - I was freezing in there.
Sometimes I really appreciate new technology. While I was waiting, I kept Matt, Danielle and Laura up to date by text message and called Joan on my cell. All without leaving Bill. They are not worrying so much about cell phones in the hospital any more (at least not in the ER), just as long as you don't bother anyone else.
They never did figure out what was wrong this time. Maybe it was because it was Saturday.
Today he's just fine and has been perking around the house all day. I am always grateful when he comes back to us. I hope we never have to see the day when he doesn't.