The Toby Dog

Today I lost my dog for the second time in as many months. This time was much worse than the last time for a few reasons. One being I actually knew he was missing before he was found, and two, he's recently been diagnosed with epilepsy and needs medicine twice a day.
Toby is pretty much my best friend and I've realized recently how lost I would be without him. He's my baby, I raised him from a puppy, he was there for me when my dad died, ( I held onto the poor boy for hours that night) he's always so excited to see me weather I've been away at college for months or upstairs in my room for an hour. He's the best dog I could ever ask for even though a lot of the time I want to kick him in the face for being so frustrating.
A few weeks ago I came downstairs to find my boy seizing on the back porch. I went outside to try and help but he didn't know who I was and tried to run away from me. It was a knife in my heart. He eventually came around I got him to the vet where they kept him for a few nights. they sent him home to me with the diagnosis of epilepsy and a prescription of twice daily medicine for the rest of his life. Now I know what parents with sick children really feel like. You can't spontaneously go out for a night or a weekend, you're always watching for the slightest change in behavior or mood or appetite. And when they disappear even for a few hours, you feel like the world has stopped turning.  I get up every morning to give him his meds and feel so guilty if I take an extra hour for myself to sleep in. Every night, the same thing.
And then things like today happen. He goes missing from the yard and I mount a frantic search to find him before medicine time, knowing that his life depends on me bringing him home. After about two hours or so I found him wandering around on the other side of the neighborhood. I called to him and ran towards him but again he didn't recognize me. When I reached him he backed up a few steps and whined a little bit before he let me reach out to pet him. He must of remembered me pretty quick though because he was just fine in a few minutes and followed me home, but he was slow and quiet, not his usual excitable self.I know he must have gotten into someone's food somewhere along his adventure because he was stuffed full, his stomach was drum tight, so at least I know he wasn't starving. I'm not sure if he had another seizure while he was out, but his behavior was just like before when he came too - dazed, confused, sluggish and clumsy. It's so hard to see him like that and not know what happened. Is it just a reaction to the trauma of being lost? Did he seize? Did he eat something that made him sick? So many things could have gone wrong, all because he somehow got out of the yard (still a total mystery).