Steve O returns to Adrian

Well, the day finally arrived! Steve was able to come home last Tuesday after two months and 18 days. He is glad to be home and loves the smell of it. We’re hoping it will have a positive affect on him and he’ll make steady improvements.

It is the small things you really don’t even think about that he is going to have to learn all over again. Right now they are working hard on his swallowing. This is something we just take for granted, but if the right muscles aren’t working properly, you can’t swallow. He does well with solid food, but liquid just doesn’t work. Therefore, he still has to have his feeding tube in to give him his liquid medications and water to keep him hydrated. His eyesight is not good. He has double vision and blurriness. It is worse in his left eye, so they have his right eye covered to try and strengthen his left. Hopefully with the right treatment this will eventually be corrected. Not only does this affect his seeing, but also his balance. We’re hoping that with getting his eyesight corrected this will improve his balance as he is unable to walk at all without assistance.

Overall he is doing well and he has come a long way in just 2 1/2 months. He still has a long way to go, and even though we want results fast, we have learned to just take one day at a time and be thankful.

He gets really confused, at times. I think that when he rests his brain is working so hard and he is thinking about so many different things, that everything runs together. I wonder sometimes where he comes up with some of his stories and the bad thing is, in his mind, they are true. And boy will he argue with you. Sometimes you just have to laugh to keep from crying. One thing he didn’t lose was his sense of humor. Believe me, he can come up with some good ones. This helps us get through a lot of the emotional times. He has his moments when he gets depressed and feels that he is worthless. He sometimes thinks the doctors lied to all of us and that he will never get any better. You just have to start lecturing him and then eventually he’ll snap out of it.

He really wants to come to the office. He told the occupational therapist that she needed to get him where he could write and use the computer because he had a column to write. I’m not sure what he thinks he’ll write about, but I am going to bring him up 1 or 2 days a week for a short period and let him just sit in his office to see how he does with it.

The only way he will get better is with a lot of intense speech, occupational and physical therapy and it is going to take a lot of it. He is now going to Bates County Memorial Hospital every day for some kind of therapy and they are working him very hard. He complains some, but also reminds himself -- No Pain, No Gain.

Another reason he is where he is today is because of all of you. Every prayer, every caring thought, visit, call, card, gift, hug, word of encouragement, offer of help, or just a smile, has meant so much. He doesn’t remember a lot of his visitors but we tell him about every one of you and we keep him updated on the caringbridge site. All he can say is, “Wow!” We are blessed to live in such a wonderful community and to have so many friends, near and far, that care so much.

Now we’re just praying for the day to come that Steve will be his old self again and back in the office writing his column once again.

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Steve attended the ground breaking ceremony last night for Vision 2007. He was very happy to be able to be there. The committee even had him lead the Pledge of Allegiance. He couldn’t have been prouder. It was Lions Club meeting night also, so he wanted to pass through and say hi to all of them. Then he wanted to attend the reception that was being held after the ceremony. It was a great night for him and I believe it gave him a lot of encouragement. He is very excited about the project and is glad that he is home and will be able to watch the progress.