My Life Story | Steve Schlabach

Guess I won't bore you and just keep my my story to maybe two minutes, since three minutes is a long time.

Anyhow, it's been good to be here this morning.

When Roland asked me to share, I was like, yeah, I can.

But then saw that it said life story.

Well, I'm not gonna do that because you don't want to be here for a couple hours.

Anyhow, I'll share a little bit of my story.

You kind of take it for granted that everybody knows who you are and and what happened to you.

If you're a little bit different than other people and you don't really think about it, I guess that means I've adjusted to it.

I don't know, there's no, there's really no such thing as adjusting.

Well, there is such thing as adjusting to it, but not, I would you say, maybe not the way other people think, but anyhow, I was in an electrical accident back in.

I made some notes and I didn't even put that in my notes.

I think it was 1980 and, by the way, just before that.

You know we all have a story.

Mine is no more important than any of yours.

It's just a little bit different than maybe from from yours, but anyhow, I've had you know this, not just about me, but it's.

It's about all my family friends that I've had through the years that have helped me through life.

You know you can't get through this life on your own as much as you think you can.

Just doesn't work.

At some point in time you're gonna need help.

You don't need it now, you're gonna need it when you get old.

So might as well get used to it now.

But anyhow, august 3rd I think it was August the 3rd or August the 7th, I'm not even quite sure the church that we were going to, which would have been Gospelite, was building an addition onto the church house, was actually for a school and basically a lot of the work was being done by people from the church and my dad actually took off from work that afternoon it was on a Friday, if I recall and went back to to help with the mason work, the laying brick and stuff.

So it was in August.

I was out of school, by the way, I was 12 when this happened.

I just got out of sixth grade and, ironically, jonathan was in my class just ready to go into seventh grade the next year.

I wasn't really looking forward to that.

I still remember the teacher that was teaching seventh grade, so I don't know my sixth grade teacher.

She took the opportunity to tutor me, actually the next, which would have been seventh, yeah, seventh grade.

So anyhow.

But anyhow, I went with my dad back there to help doing some work and he was laying brick and I was helping him.

I was on the scaffolding on the backside and I was actually raking the brick.

If you guys know what that is, that's taking the mud between the joints out.

So I was doing that.

A guy from church was moving bricks from one end to the other because whenever they got delivered they weren't in the right place where you use them.

So he had a small boom truck and was moving these bricks back to the backside, which was the area that we were working on.

So he got me down off the scaffolding.

He had an older truck and he didn't.

These booms were run by a battering.

He didn't quite have enough juice to swing this thing back around when he was done unloading.

So he got me back.

He got me off and wondered if I wouldn't reach in his truck and push his accelerator to create a little bit more power to swing his boom.

So I did that.

I got down, and you don't think of these things when you do these things.

So I just reached in the truck and pushed the gas pedal and I heard him yell at me and say that's good, no problem, he's good now that I can get back out.

So I did.

I just looked up and as I looked up I saw that he was getting close to the wires and about that time it arced.

Now, if you know anything about electric, this was a cloudy, misty kind of rainy day.

Almost Electricity jumps, call it arcs, and you don't even have to be in contact with those wires for them to do a lot of damage.

And he got about three feet close to these wires and it jumped from the wires to the boom, went through the truck and to me, because I was standing about I was about three feet from the truck, if I remember correctly and it knocked me down and he jumped off the truck, which was the instinctive thing to do.

Therefore, when he did that, the boom stayed at the position that it was and it kept arcing from the wire to the boom through the truck and to me, it threw me on the ground and I was on the ground within three feet of the truck.

So it constantly came from the wire through the truck and to me just back and forth because I was so close and it didn't stop.

The power didn't go off, it just kept arcing.

I credit a lot.

Well, I credit God for saving my life, but probably the person that saved my life physically here on Earth was Aidan Miller.

He was going to go and grab me and pull me away so it would stop, and he thought about it that if he does that he's going to get shocked too.

So he actually got a 2x4 and rolled me away.

If he would not have done that I probably wouldn't be here today.

So if he wouldn't have done that, I probably would not be here.

Actually I wouldn't be here, I'm pretty sure.

But anyhow, I was taken to Maslin Doctors Hospital, which was ironically where I was born, and they immediately shipped me off.

They took me by squad up to Akron Children's, which back in the day that was 1980.

Life flights weren't quite so I don't want to say popular, but so normally used, I guess.

So they didn't life flight me.

Everything was done by ambulance.

So I got up to Akron Children's.

I actually I was there from which would have been August until November the 3rd, so it'd been three months, close to three months, that I was there.

By the way, I shared this with our small group, so if you guys get bored, you can either shut me off or leave, whatever.

But anyhow, I had good doctors and nurses they actually the doctors and the nurses.

They gave my parents no hope that I would actually survive.

I was thrown on my left side and if you know anything about electricity, it burns from the inside out.

I don't know why it didn't get burned inside.

I it's.

I can't explain it, but it went in through my left shoulder and it blew out my little toe on my left side.

So the toe disintegrated and is no more there.

So it blew out.

And if you stopped and think about it, they were worried about me walking, because the most important toe that you have on your foot is your little toe.

That's what you balance yourself.

So they were a little bit concerned about my walking, but that all took care of itself.

I had three main doctors Jensen, rothman and Serrino.

I know that Rothman, he was an older fellow.

I know that he's no more living, but I'm guessing the other two are.

I should look him up.

I didn't I to this day I didn't, but I had a lot of good nurses and doctors, had nine surgeries I think it was, if I'm not wrong, nine surgeries.

I think the longest one was a seven or eight hour surgery which was by a plastic surgeon and that was Dr Serrino.

He was just a young guy at the time and the nurses told me afterwards during surgery that he takes his time.

So it took him a long time to do what he had to do.

But they tried to save my arms and they just couldn't because I started getting blood infections so they had to take them off.

One was done, I think maybe a week after my accident.

The other, which would have been the right side, was maybe three weeks after.

I'm not quite sure on the time, on the times anymore, but anyhow, I had, I had, I had a lot of great nurses and I probably could name them all.

I did run.

This is kind of ironic.

I did run into one.

It was just I think it was before we were married on the flight from here to we were going to Spokane, washington, and got to Denver and we're getting up to leave the plane, a guy behind me goes up, gets up and says, are you Steve?

And I'm like, oh, my goodness, how does this guy know my name?

And I'm like, yeah, and he says I'm Bud, I was one of your nurses.

And I'm like, oh, you got to be kidding me.

So small world.

But yeah, and I remember him clearly.

He just changed looks and I think he gave him some weight, so I didn't know him.

But we got to talking there and I should.

I haven't looked him up, I think I have his address somewhere at home, but yeah, that was kind of a surprise for me, but he remembered me clearly and so, yeah, it was kind of ironic.

But yeah, I did.

I did not.

I was not allowed to have visitors in the hospital for the first couple weeks because of infections and stuff like that, but I did.

They did let my mom and dad in and some of my family the Slebo family and the Mullet family.

I did have visitors later on that came to see me a lot of friends.

So, yeah, it was a journey and yet, you know, three minutes was a long time.

Well, I had three months in the hospital, so I guess that would have been a long, long time.

But I just credit God, my parents and all my friends and family that helped me through everything, because I couldn't have done it on my own.

There's just no way you can do something like that on your own.

And, yeah, I can do a lot of things, but I also have limitations.

But you just deal with it.

You do things a little bit different from what other people do.

Sometimes you just have to sit down and figure out how you're going to do this, and then there's times when you also know that you're not going to be able to do it.

But yeah, it's just.

Many people have asked me already and I wasn't sure if I want to talk about this or not.

Many people have asked me already if I'm bitter or hold bad feelings.

And I do not, because, number one, it wouldn't change anything.

Number two, it just makes everybody around you miserable.

If you're a bitter person, so there's just no, there's just no advantage in going down that road, and if you do that, you just make everybody miserable around you, and when you're in my situation, you need help from everybody, and if you're a miserable person, it just doesn't work.

So you might as well just throw that out for what I mean.

It's just, it's not worth it.

You know, god, let's things happen for a purpose.

I don't know the big picture.

Maybe God let this happen to me because he knew that I would get in some sort of trouble later on in my life and this was a way that he could keep me from it.

I don't know.

I think about that a lot sometimes.

I don't know.

Is that the case or not.

I'll never know, and it doesn't really matter, I don't have to know.

But I'll just leave you with a couple verses here that I read pretty much daily.

I did, actually.

I had my 13th birthday in the hospital and they did let me go home for a day.

I went home and came back I think it was the same night.

Yeah, they sent me home and I had to be back that evening again, which would have been that would have been in October, and that was quite a treat.

When you're in the hospital for that long, going home was quite a treat.

You kind of just didn't want to go back, but I had to go back because they weren't done with me yet.

So but yeah, I went.

And the other thing I want to say I credit a lot of the things that I can do to the physical therapists that I had.

Now, these were the people that I probably hated the most, because they really drill you and they just make you do things you really don't have.

They do it for a purpose, because they know that you're going to have to figure things out, and so these people were taught to not give up on people.

And they didn't give up on me.

They were quite rigorous with me and I at the time I didn't like them very much, but now I give them a lot of credit because I have a lot of respect for, for people that do physical therapy in that field to this day, because they are they're wonderful people.

Anyhow, just a verse in Philippians not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I've learned in and this is tough, but I'm not learned to be content.

You don't want to be content.

There's how would I say there's a fine line in being content and being lazy, but you got to give up because you can't do everything on your own.

So another one is Philippians 4, 13,.

I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.

So that's kind of my story.

I could go on.

I'm probably missing some stuff, but sure people are hungry in here.

So if you have any questions, fire away.

I'll answer them.

If I can, I'll find an answer somewhere.

But yeah, if you have any questions, just let me know and try to answer them the best I can.

But yeah, it's, it's a journey and you, just you can't give up.

You have to go on.

You can't just sit in the chair and do nothing.

I have kind of chosen to go on with my life and I've had many friends that have helped me along the way, too many to mention.

I can't even start to mention all the friends that I've had throughout, throughout my experience.

So, anyhow, that's kind of my story, a little bit of it.

Anyhow.

I actually a guy that was married to my dad's sister got me into Kym Lumber when I was, let me think, when I was 16 or 17, and they needed a crew truck driver, which was they had a pole building.

They had pole building crews, three of them that they had going on putting up pole building.

So what I did?

I drove truck, crew truck and I went along out with the crew.

I did this for I think it was six years and I would do a lot of the bobcat work, which was driving a bobcat, drilling holes for posts and things like that.

And then I got the opportunity to go into the office and do takeoffs for pole buildings and I did that for, I think, three or four years and then I got moved into inventory maintenance, which is where I'm at now.

So I've been at Kym since I was well I've been there for 37 years already, so just grateful for the opportunity that they gave me Bill Kym he was a great man and he gave me every opportunity and I took advantage of it and I'm still there today.

So, yeah, there's things that you can do if you really want to do something.

I wasn't about to sit at home and take handouts.

You can choose to do that, but I'm not sure that that would be the best way.

But I know there's people that that don't have a choice, that don't have the options that I did.

I was lucky enough to have people that gave me a job.

So, yeah, that's where I'm at and that's what I'm doing today.

No, I was not.

I was probably two or three months after I got released from the hospital is when they did that.

So, and that was, yeah, that was the winter, and that was done through and they're not no longer in business.

That was done through Shamp Prosthetics and they are now no longer business.

They sold out to a company called Hanger, and the guy that actually made my first arm this is actually the third one I have, I think he is no longer living and he was a very intelligent guy and, to this day, all the new innovations they have, inventions, and the new technology they have.

When I go and they see me, they're like, well, there's really nothing that we can give you that's better.

We can make you look better cosmetically, but it's going to hinder your driving ability, it's going to hinder your eating ability, it's going to hinder your working ability, so you might as well go on the way you are.

So that's where I'm at.

They have all this fancy new stuff and it works great.

But probably the biggest thing it would hinder me from doing is driving.

That's a whole other story of how I got my license.

So well, yeah, that's yeah.

Anything else.

I was 12, I turned 13 in the hospital.

It was.

I say it was.

It wasn't easy, because I love to play ball.

That's probably one of the hardest things for me.

But, like I said, there's just some stuff that you can't do.

So my best thing right now that I can do is watch a ball game.

So that's what I like to do.

But as a teenager there again I had so many friends that I hung out with that, didn't even think of how I was or whatever.

We just we did all kinds of things, we improvised, we did, we did other things.

Most of the time and it was probably probably the hardest time was from 15 to 17, 18, time that you're kind of in your prime, you know play ball, stuff like that.

That was kind of probably that one of the toughest times for me.

But it was just something that you really can't change things and, like I said before, if you choose to be better about it because of how you are, it's going to make everybody around you that's helping you miserable, and so you just choose to do the best you can with what you have and go from there.

It's not an easy thing and I'm actually thankful that it happened to me when I was at a young age.

If it would happen to me now, it would have been a lot harder for me to adapt to it.

The older you are for something like that is what they told me, that's what they told me at the hospital the harder it is and I truly believe that, because now I don't know, I don't know how I deal with it now.

I well, I do.

I probably give up really fast.

When I was young I didn't give up.

Now my will, my willpower, is probably not quite at the level that it was then.

Yes, sean, I can't a little bit.

Yeah, I have a cable that's looped around my shoulder that I pull on.

That's how I open and close, and I have an elbow mechanism in here that I can release and and it's like a gear mechanism.

So that's basically how it works.

And like said, they could do all the fancies and make me all the fancy stuff.

But I know a guy from Kansas City I'm not sure I think he's in LA now and it's been a while since I've seen him and he just looked at me.

He said you know what?

We're just not going to be able to get you anything that's going to be more beneficial to you than what you have now.

So I did have one for the left side.

It took my ability way from the right side.

So they were like, okay, we're going to ditch this idea.

So that's that's how we got to that point.

Yeah, so I do things a little bit different from what other people do and I guess it keeps me limber.

I don't know.

There's no thing and there's no place in the Bible that says you have to mow along with your hands.

So I mow with my feet, so I you know what.

I'm not even sure that I remember that came.

I right, yeah, I do.

I can't remember remember circling in your driveway, but I do remember that.

Yeah, basically, when I came home from the hospital after three months I didn't have any pain anymore.

Electrical burn pains are one of the worst and I was on morphine for four weeks.

They had to take me off because I was getting addicted to it and to this day, when I walk into a hospital, I can smell it.

If it's at all out in the open, I pick it up immediately.

I can smell it.

But I would say by the time I left the hospital.

I think that's one thing they had to control for me before I could leave and that was my pain level and, if I remember correctly, I did not have any meds for pain when I left the hospital.

It took a long time.

I mean probably at the time that that had actually happened.

I didn't have that much pain but going through the surgeries and stuff and all that, I had a lot of pain for the next couple months but by the time I went home they pretty much had that managed and had it under control to where I didn't even have to have meds when I got home.

A lot of people have what they call ghost pains and that your nerves are still telling your brain that you have something you know and.

But I'm very fortunate I don't have any of that at all.

I'm I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

I talked to people and they have that.

That's the first question they asked me and I'm like I don't know what that is.

So I'm very fortunate in that area.

Anyone else if not?

I guess I'm supposed to dismiss you guys for lunch, so why don't we all stand and we'll have dismissal prayer and then we'll remember the food too.

Let's pray, dear God.

Thank you for this day, thank you for being with us, thank you for the time of worship that we could have, thank you for sending your son to die for us that we can have eternal life and they can.

We can have it with you.

Thank you so much for for church friends, for all the friends that we have throughout our life.

Just thank you for for everyone here today.

Bless them in a special way.

Also, be with the food now that we will partake of.

Pray that you might bless it to our bodies, that we might use it to your glory and keep us all safe as we go from here.

We pray this in your name amen.