April 1

there are often some changes that brain injured people experience which make them better than they were. a lot of that is happening with steve and it is AMAZING. a few weeks ago we started to notice that he could hear unusually well. now he can hear people talking in their own homes. he is now able to speak and undersstand spanish, and he has never studied it. he is doing some amazing things with his eyes also. he can make small amount of water boil JUST BY STARING AT IT. he levitated our little doggie when she couldnt jump up on the couch, and on and on and on. but the most incredible feat is that he can make salty discharge form in the eyes of his mom and dad JUST BY WALKING IN THE ROOM. ps. happy april fools day

March 4 ONE MONTH LATER

My apologies to all those who frequent this site for info and found it empty for the past month. Steve made it home 3 weeks ago today. (Yeah!!) He had a tremendous send off from his Colorado friends. Over 30 visited on the last day. The staff at the hospital even gave him a going away party!! We thank everyone who prayed for his recovery, who sent cards, food, gifts, money, who visited or called, etc. !! So many, many people made this recovery possible. If we were to name them all it would probably be in the hundreds (if not more). At one point we counted over 18 states and 7 countries where people were praying. Our ultimate thanks goes to the giver of life, our savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. We have fondly labeled Steve , "the Miracle Boy" because it truly is a miracle to see how far the Lord has brought him. We ask you to continue to pray for Steve's cognitive abilities to continue to improve. He has made tremendous progress here since getting home. Pray for his eyes to get better and for his appointment with the hand surgeon this Thurs. Steve has had a full week of therapy at the Drake Rehab Center. He likes the new speech therapist and likes having alot of homework to do between sessions. He also started guitar lessons. His short term memory is really starting to improve. He had post traumatic amnesia (PTA) right up until the last week before he was released from the hospital. Steve is already making plans to visit his friends in Colorado this summer and frequently talks to them on the phone or e-mail. His goal is to "be a little better today than yesterday". He realizes that it'll be a slow process to get back to where he was but he's willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. If you would like to leave a message on his phone, he now has a new password and can retrieve messages. (For 3 months he couldn't remember the password, so if you left a message then, he didn't get it.) Also, he can now use the internet and his reading has improved tremendously. Send him an e-mail at:
www.steveschmits@yahoo.com He would love to hear from you and will email you back.Again, thank you for praying, loving and caring so much. We love you all.....the Steve Schmits family (also know as Georgina, Tom (parents) and sister -Beth

Sunday 2/4/07

Blogsters-sorry for the dearth of blogs. There hasn't been too much dramatic or semi-dramatic going on, just the usual improvement. Watching this recovery process can be quite perplexing at times. Think of the total of our cognitive skills as columns.
When we are children, they rise evenly and together.
A brain-injured person's columns rise unevenly, some very unevenly, leading to some quaint utterances. But those are coming fewer and farther between every day. We are still fighting "The Man" and his allies, all those incompetant or lazy or apathetic people we are forced to rely on to get through this labrynth. I never realized how many there are!! Sprinkled among all the dopes, though, are a few individuals that have gone so far beyond what we expected that I have actually been dumbstruck a few times. When Steve finished his fall and landed in the road, he was found by two bicyclists who were visiting their parents. They had to catch a plane early next a.m., so we never got to meet them, but their parents came that evening. They were twice removed from the situation, didn't even know Steve's name, yet still came, and they came back a week later.

Tuesday Jan 23

Sorry about the gap in postings. I've been submerged with major and minor hassles. "The Man" has really been stickin' it to me. By that I mean the endless parade of insurance, social security, medicaid, and various other types of hoops to jump thru. Steve is doing great. He is outnumbered and outmanuevered each day by the tag team of Georgina, Marianne, and Judy. The staff at the hospital continues to be amazed at the quantity and quality of the progress Steve exhibits. Short term memory is really coming back with an unexpected and awesome display. He remembered somebody last week that he didn't know the week before, but this week he was able to remember what he had for breakfast the day of the injury. I must end now. Keep praying.

tuesday 1/16

Hello blogophiles. More improvement has occurred. S is remembering events and people which entered his life since the fall on a regular basis now, rather than sporadically. He remembered a young lady with whom he had spent some time in the 2 weeks prior to the fall, whereas 2 weeks ago he didn't know who she was. He is laughing some and engaging in some wordplay with the speech therapist. The head of the therapy department, Dr. House (really) said that S will probably leave the hospital in 2-4 weeks. The knitting together of the bones in the right wrist may influence this vague timetable. The hand specialist wants to put a plate in the wrist before he leaves, but he also wants to wait as long as possible; so this, like everything else, is up inthe air.

Saturday 1/13/07

More good things are happening, and fast. His concentration continues to improve. His mood stabilizing medicine (depakote) has finally taken effect. G says he has been peaceful and profanity free Friday and Saturday, memory is better, and he was even discussing his future plans today. G is getting some relief, as my sister will be spending a week there.







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Wed. 1/10

Steve is progressing through the stages. Some of them aren't so pleasant, but they are scheduled stops on the journey. The stage he is in now is characterized by some anger and irritibility.We've been told that at this point, the patient is really beginning to know that they are damaged, cannot do what they used to do (at least not with ease), want the previous life back, and the frustration boils over into various expressions of unpleasantness. On the positive side, Steve is making big gains in the cognitive skills. Concentration is improving dramatically. Today he stayed engaged in conversation with the speech therapist for 30 minutes. Georgina asks for prayer for Steve's nasty side to diminish.











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Sunday 1/7

Steve is taking a new medication intended to mitigate some of the control problems that are part of the process, such as tantrums,profanity, and (but not limited to ) undressing in the hallway. I objected, as these are some of the core qualities of the early-20s American male, but was overruled. He improves steadily in all areas-readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic, conversing with visitors, eating, walking, eating, remembering, sequencing, eating, sleeping. There's a long way to go yet. Please continue to pray.

Saturday 1/6/07

Steve continues to improve. However, the more he advances, he is that much more difficult to attend to. It is just like raising a child, but on an accelerated basis. A newborn baby is easy. A 2- or 3-year old is very difficult. Any parent can testify how exhausting-physically, mentally, and emotionally- an experience it is to tend to an individual who is mobile but is not really attuned to what is good or bad for him. Now imagine doing that for 6 weeks, 12-14 hours a day, and this is Georgina's life. Many fine people in Colorado Springs are visiting faithfully and making their support felt, but in practical terms, they can't do what needs to be done. So, while you're praying, please include my wife.
She needs it. PS-Beth went back to school. Tom is now Blogmiester.

Thurs. 1/4/07

Today two interesting things happened. Steve asked his favorite physical therapist, "How long have I been like this?" When Troy told him, and explained what had happened, Steve grew very pensive. He's starting to put it together. Later in the day, a representative of the court visited as part of the process for making Georgina his legal guardian. She was there to confirm that Steve was not capable of making his own decisions. Steve picked that exact moment to pull out the base plate for the stomach feeding tube, which was stitched to his skin. She needed no further evidence. Part of the current stage is a loss of inhibition, which often manifests itself in profane speech. Tonight G put him on the phone to talk to me. Our conversation follows: Me:"Hi Steve!" Him: "Hi Dad." Me: "What are you doing?" Him: " I'm watching Brian Urlacher and the f------- ref!!!" Then he hung up. It's great to hear his voice again.

Tuesday 1/2/07

All you atheists out there better take cover!! Agnostics-stop what you are doing and listen up and pay attention, because something big is happening! Since the beginning of this ordeal, prayer has been a major player here. I am certain that many dozens of people are praying hundreds of prayers for Steven-prayers of pleading, reasoning, demanding. I've always felt, as I pray my reasoning prayer, that the Lord would bring Steve back all the way because he has developed, in a couple of years, an intense, mature faith and a strong desire to do God's work here, and so it would be in His best interest to heal Steve. Much of what makes Steve the person he is has not returned fully yet at this early stage in the recovery, but his spiritual self has always shown itself to be-dare I say it?-intact. When he was unresponsive, he squeezed the hand of those praying at the appropriate moments. When he couldn't talk, he still said "Amen" at the end of prayer. When his speaking was coming around, much of it was random and non-sensical, but he prays intelligently and coherently, in complete sentences. Yesterday, though, he said something that tops everything else. After Georgina prayed with him, he got still for a while, then said "God gave me this so I could be a minister to broken people."