Starting a new year with catching up

School started again last Monday following Christmas holidays that
were neither as relaxing nor as productive as we had hoped. The first
week of "normal routine" was another demonstration of redefining
"normal".
Since Christopher was in the hospital with meningitis every 10 - 14
days all summer, we were just beginning to breathe when he didn't have
another bout until late November. After that, we always seemed to be
waiting, watching, constantly on the look-out for signs of the next
episode. Especially before Christmas, since it was another six weeks,
I had the feeling we had to be prepared to take him back to the
hospital at any time (hence the title of this blog), especially when
he seemed unusually tired or unfocused, or when he said things like,
"I've been feeling a bit gormless all day." In the end, however, we
made it all the way through the holidays without a trip to the
hospital, and Christopher even spent a week at a "DJ camp" in Styria
the first week in January.
On Monday the boys started back to school, on Tuesday Christopher had
a German test and came home early from school not feeling well.
Wednesday he kept insisting it was "different this time", making a
show of eating and talking incessantly, because he had his heart set
on going to a concert Friday evening. Thursday morning we took him in,
they did a spinal tap, which showed the same high count again, and
Christopher went into his "twilight zone". He came out of it quite
quickly this time, though, sparing no efforts to prove that he was
"fine" again, and actually managed to get out of the hospital in the
afternoon, so that we could spend the rest of the afternoon and the
evening fighting about whether he should go to this concert or not. He
went.
If he could put that much energy and determination into
longer-term goals, I don't think we would have any other real
problems, but as it is, I just feel extremely frustrated. We are off
to a great start this year.