Aid Jacob's Journey to Healing

Jacob Bond is a husband, father, caregiver and gentle human being. He is deeply kind, endlessly patient, and the center of our family. He is the one who raises our boys, Jacob, 3 years old, and Hyrum, 18 months old, while I work. He's our best friend, our consoler, the one who keeps our home a place of love and light.

On Labor Day, September 2, 2024 I woke up and found him on the living room floor. He hadn't been feeling well the night before and decided to sleep on the couch so as not to wake me or our boys. At some point he got up to get water, fell, and couldn't get back up. That is how our nightmare started.

Nearly a month later, we know more but there's little we can do about it. Jacob contracted West Nile Virus right here in Ogden, UT. From that infection came an auto-immune response that has left him completely disabled, and almost took him from his boys. He's been diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM). The neurologist has told us these two diseases don't normally coincide, but in his case they do and it will be a very long road to recovery.

We are blessed to believe Jacob's chances of coming home are greater than not coming home, but the journey back to whatever "full recovery" looks like for him is going to be difficult. As of right now, he's still on a ventilator, has a tracheostomy tube in place and can't sit up, walk, or move too much. We've been given anywhere from 6 months to a year before he could come home, and even longer to be able to resume life as it was.

Meanwhile, bills are starting to come in. We didn't have daycare in place because he raised our boys, and while I've been scrambling to keep life going I've missed a lot of work. I can't lose my job or we'll lose our house, our insurance, our car, all things less important than my husband, but essential to keeping some structure and normalcy in my sons lives.

Some folks have asked me if I've got a GoFundMe or anything like that where I can receive help, and now I do. We welcome all your thoughts, prayers, positive energy and kind words. We appreciate all the goodness you have to give. I just want my sons to have a father to grow up with, and I don't want this to be the first early memories they have of him. If I do this right, maybe neither of them will remember this part at all. Thank you to all who have read this far, and know we appreciate anything you have to offer.