We got home from the trip on a Saturday. Thank heavens the flight home went smoothly with no hiccups. Back home DH seemed to relax some. Since he had a doctor’s appointment on the following Wednesday with his neurologist to go over test results, I figured those results might give us some clues to what was going on. It was only a few days away, I told myself all would be well. We would understand what was going on, and we would have a game plan to get DH well.
I actually was relaxed and hopeful those few days. Silly me.
Wednesday’s appointment was scheduled for late morning. DH drove we both to his appointment. Nothing unusual happened on the way over. Traffic on the freeway was its normal back up clogged self. The appointment itself just reaffirmed what we knew. We were at the doctor’s office only a short time, and was uneventful. Since it was close to election time, we stopped and voted early as was allowed. After voting we returned home and ate lunch. DH had an appointment with their chiropractor mid afternoon. DH was able to drive himself there, he felt that fine.
It was mid autumn and I needed to work in the yard. So I spent some time doing yard work while he was at the chiropractor. Since I didn’t have my cell phone on me, I didn’t hear the initial call. By the time I returned inside, the chiropractor had called me telling me I needed to come pick up my husband. All they said was he wasn’t well. But as the message continued, they said they weren’t sure if maybe my DH had had a stroke. I found it strange that if they were concerned he had a stroke, why didn’t they call EMS? Wouldn’t an ambulance have been a better choice to call, especially since it took me a while to call them back? Why wait over an hour for me to return their call and just hold him there if they thought he was that ill? I’ll never know.
I drove my vehicle to their office. Once I arrived, DH was waiting there, sitting quietly in a room with a towel wrapped around him like a shawl, presumable to help keep him warm. At first glace I couldn’t understand what if anything was wrong with him. He was quiet but he seemed just tired.
And then I tried to talk to him. That was when It became apparent something was wrong. Something was very wrong. The quietness now seemed more like a compliant child. One who was waiting for instructions, just waiting for mom or someone to tell them what to do. I did my best to treat him like a child who wanted to please mother. I just gently guided him out, trying to use a soothing voice with him. As for the workers in the office, I got the feeling they just wanted to me hurry up and get him out. Maybe they felt he was an embarrassment sitting there in the office. I don’t know. But I didn’t get the feeling of much help from them. I felt more like something they just wanted to go away.
Not knowing what else to do I took him to the closest emergency room I knew of. Even there he seemed just quiet. I parked, walked DH inside, and signed him in. This whole time he as just quiet and compliant. Luckily there were not too many patients looking for care, so DH was taken immediately. When they asked what the problem was it was hard to explain. Luckily I had the chiropractors description on my cell phone voicemail. I let them hear it.
Since the description came from a chiropractor, the doctor decided to check vitals. This was where the fun began. His pulse was fine, blood pressure was fine, reflexes were fine, nothing seemed to be wrong. Then the doctor asked him basic questions. Some he could easily answer. Where was he? He was in a hospital. Some he didn’t answer so well. What year was it? He didn’t know. What was the date, day of the week? He couldn’t answer that. Did he know what hospital he was at? Certainly, he was at Stanford hospital.
That was when the doctor really recognized something was wrong. Did he know what city he was in. Well, he was sure he was at Stanford. In him mind that seemed to answer the question.
The doctor began testing. Maybe this was a stroke. Maybe an aneurysm. He wasn’t sure, but he did agree something was wrong. The ER visit took almost six hours.They did test, MRI, scans, x-rays, etc. In the end DH didn’t remember much of anything current. In the end the doctor didn’t have any idea of what was wrong.
It had been a long day, we hadn’t eaten anything since lunch and it was almost 10PM. I gave DH a sandwich and put him to bed in a separate bedroom. I felt this might be easier for him. I knew it would be a restless night for me.
Around 7AM, well before DH regular rising time, I awoke to find him standing beside my bed staring at me. Once he realized I was awake, my eyes were open, he asked me, “Who are you?” There was no malice in his voice, no anger, no accusation of any sort, it was just a question. I told him my name, and when he didn’t respond I told him I was his wife, his spouse. I did my best to keep my voice neutral and just conversational. It wasn’t easy. I then asked if he wanted to join me in bed. He seemed relieved by my answer and quietly slipped into bed with me. My answer seemed to satisfy his need for information.
I didn’t go back to sleep, but he drifted off to a quiet slumber.