A year has passed since Powell High School sophomore Caden Nelson was hospitalized and missed a majority of his freshman basketball season. Since then he’s made a full recovery and is contributing to Panther athletics this year.

FALLING ILL

Nelson had just started his freshman year of basketball and was playing in his first tournament on the Panther freshman team when he became sick.

“I played the first two games and felt good,” he said. “I woke up Saturday super sore.”

He was admitted to the hospital for more than two weeks, initially still uncertain how he became ill. Once he was transferred to Billings it was discovered he had pneumonia and it kept getting worse.

“They were trying everything. Three to four blood tests a day, everything pretty much to try and find something to make it better,” Nelson said.

At its worst, Nelson was told that his health was getting worse without explanation without being able to find that solution. Eventually it was determined a condition with his teeth led to pneumonia.

“Luckily it was not as fatal but it was still pretty bad,” Nelson said.

Throughout the illness Nelson had support from friends and family around the country.

“My family was huge honestly,” Nelson said. “My parents were with me 24/7 trying to hold down their jobs the whole time. They were the ones that were there for me all the time and I can’t thank them enough for that.”

He said he even had family in Utah along with people from around Wyoming reaching out in support throughout the process.

ROAD TO RECOVERY

After returning home, Nelson was out of school for several days and continued to recover before returning back to a sense of normalcy.

“I didn’t do much. I laid on the couch and didn’t have a lot of energy,” Nelson said.

Nelson was able to recover through antibiotics while continuing to regain his strength with physical therapy, which he said challenged his lungs, to work his way back to the court.

He wasn’t able to return to the team until late in the season, when he came back for the final three games of the year.

“They said that my lungs wouldn’t be healed for even up to a year,” he said.

It took time for the Panther to get back to full strength, acknowledging that he still had problems heading into the summer months.

“Towards football season was when I finally felt confident in everything. It was scarred after and they said scarring is the part that takes forever. In all, it took six to seven months to get fully recovered,” Nelson said.

He then played on the Panther football team, serving as the junior varsity quarterback along with a receiver and a cornerback on the varsity team.

Nelson had a career high eight receptions for 108 yards and two touchdown receptions in the Panther’s playoff game against Buffalo, as he continues to develop in the early stages of his athletic career.

“I don’t think it set me back in any way,” Nelson said. “I’d say it taught me a lot of lessons in everything and kind of my view of everything.”

Nelson has stepped onto the court this year competing on the junior varsity team for the Panthers, as part of a strong program at PHS that has continued to grow in recent years.

“I would say this season is going well so far,” he said.

(Zac Taylor contributed reporting)