The Cold Finally Hit

So the cold Jake has been dreading and worrying about finally hit this week. I'm actually surprised he's held off getting sick this long, his last cold was in the Spring. His walking deteriorated again and really slowed him down. We were hoping he was further enough along in his recovery a cold might not be so impactful but he wasn't so lucky. His body just doesn't have enough resources to fight off an infection and work on healing, so his walking gets worse, his arm gets tighter and he fatigues a lot easier. Honestly, it's no real surprise. I know how drained I feel when I'm sick and I'm not recovering from a massive stroke. Luckily, it seems to be a pretty minor head cold and not one of the more serious ones going around.

What makes this a little bit harder than before is being in middle school. There is so much more distance to cover between classes which just adds to him getting tired. We kept him home on Thursday and Friday so he could rest but making up all that missed work is going to be taxing too. We'll do what we can and if it takes a little longer to get caught up, so be it. We talked with him today about going back to school tomorrow and he's worried about getting around and having the other kids see him struggle walking. He asked if he could bring his wheelchair to school. He hasn't had to use it much at all lately and I was proud of him for recognizing that it will help even though he doesn't want to have to have it at school. Now we just need to figure out who's going to assist him with it since he doesn't have dedicated help anymore. :-)