Author shares lessons he learned from his son’s life

EMILY GOJMERAC

REPORTER

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven . . . a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).

This Bible verse has been what has given Steve and Krista Blomberg hope when it comes to life with their second son, Landon. Steve, a teacher of the Rib Lake School District, and Krista, a parttime Assistant Director and Youth Services at the Rib Lake Public Library and part-time caregiver, have gone through their fair share of challenges as a family, but their faith, family, and community have kept them going through the most difficult times.

The second oldest out of four children, Landon developed and hit all his milestones just like any toddler would. However, on June 1, 2000, when Landon was almost 5 years old, he suffered his first seizure. Not knowing what to do, Krista and Steve, rushed him to Marshfield Hospital.

Krista said “The doctors said that sometimes people have one and then that’s it. So we went to my parents who lived close by and shortly thereafter he had his second seizure. Then I called the hospital again, and they did a whole bunch of neurology tests and eventually diagnosed him with epilepsy.”

After being formally diagnosed with epilepsy other tests showed that Landon was also diagnosed with Cortical Dysplasia Syndrome, which is when the white and grey matter in your brain, have all the cells but they didn’t go to their assigned locations.

Over time, Landon fell behind in his motor skills and his schooling, which was due to a large part of being exhausted all of the time because of his seizures.

Steve said “Landon has always had a very impressive vocabulary and memory. Especially when it comes to things he enjoys.”

When Landon was 10 years old, Krista and Steve took him to Cleveland, Ohio to the Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Center. While Landon was there a procedure was performed that ended up being a more diagnostic procedure that was more to figure out if another surgery would help him. The doctors concluded that because his seizures aren’t located in one or two locations, they are more diffused on the right side of his brain, that the follow-up surgery would not be beneficial in controlling his seizures. Krista said “Landon would have ended up with more losses than gains from that surgery.”

The most recent surgery that Landon has had was on June 28, 2021. The surgery entailed installing a Deep Brain Stimulator (DBS), which has been known to be useful in treating people with Parkinson’s Disease as well. The DBS sends an electrical stimulation into the thalamus of his brain, which is composed of different nuclei that each serve a unique role in relaying sensory and motor signals, as well as regulation of consciousness and alertness. Since this procedure, the seizure activity has decreased significantly, not by half, but it has decreased significantly. This surgery is only an option when the patient has had little to no success with every other treatment available.

When it came to writing his books, Steve has always had a love of writing, and has started numerous books throughout the years, but then life would get in the way to where he wouldn’t be able to finish them. So in the summer of 2018, he made the decision to finish a book and the one he wanted to finish was a book about his son Landon, because that has been such a huge part of his life, his family, and his marriage. What started out originally going to be one book, has turned into a series of 3 books that are related to each other yet all tell different stories of Landon. The first book is “Lessons from Landon.”

Steve said “It started as a story about our lives because many people have asked me ‘I don’t know how you do this.’ I believe that we don’t do it on our own, without our faith, friends, families and communities help, we wouldn’t be able to do any of this.”

So when the first book was all said and done, Steve read through it and realized that he and his family have had a really good life. Steve doesn’t look at life with his son as being a disability, he looks at his son and has a lot of gratitude towards being able to write about him.

To be able to have more of Landon’s part in the book, Landon himself drew pictures to illustrate each chapter. This first book is the only book he drew illustrations in. The first book was finished in the spring of 2019, and people who knew the family well kept asking Steve why this or that story wasn’t included in the book.

Realizing a lot of stories weren’t told, Steve decided to write the second book entitled Life with Landon. This book was more about what our story has been like as a family. For instance, it starts from the day Landon is born to his first seizure at age 4, then all the way up to the present. Also it talks about what various treatments the family has tried to lessen his seizures, such as diets, medications, etc. Then after all of that was discussed, the remainder of the book talks of how even with bumps in the road you can still have a very full and prosperous life.

Krista said “This is from Steve’s perspective however, I was there to guide Steve when it came to dates, surgeries and things like that. I have though helped out a lot with the technology aspect of this, such as working with the Amazon publisher and things like that.”

Thinking that he was finished writing books, Steve decided to write Landon a letter while he was waiting for 8 hours during Landon’s DBS surgery last spring, he figured he would write Landon a letter about that day. The book became known as Letters to Landon.

The reason Steve wanted to write a letter to Landon was because he was so full of hope, during this surgery because it was a chance that they never knew they would get, the research and the surgery itself has only been available for the last 10 years and he just felt really hopeful about the outcome of this surgery.

Steve said “The recurring theme of this book was: Hope. There is hope in every part of our journey no matter how big or how small, we’ve always had hope.”

Krista added saying “Living with something that can sometimes be a little challenging, could give hope to someone who has gone through similar challenges in their life.”

Having Landon in the family has encouraged his other siblings, an older brother and two younger sisters to go into fields where they would be helping other people. They’ve also been helpful with giving their parents time away so that they could go out and do other things and not always having to take care of Landon.

After Landon’s surgery in June 2021, Landon lost all of the functioning of the left side of his body. He had to relearn to walk because he didn’t have any movement in his fingers or toes. All of his large motor functions of his left side were not there.

Krista said “Nobody expected that to happen, but the doctors figured the surgery was such a shock to his brain, that that was how his body responded to the surgery.”

With a great home health nurse, Landon was able to complete his physical therapy from the comfort of his own home. During his first two weeks after surgery, Landon was wheelchair bound. Steve and Krista’s house was not equipped for that but they made do. By the end of the summer, Landon was back on his feet and walking around.

Krista said “My favorite day of the summer was when he got on his bike and rode it for the first time in almost three months. That’s something he loves to do.”

Today Landon has three part time jobs, he works at Camp Forest Springs, in Westboro, Black River Industries, in Medford, and Ed’s IGA, in Rib Lake. These job opportunities wouldn’t be possible without the support of the community.

Steve never had aspirations to make millions off of his books, but he is grateful for everyone who has read his books and has reached out to tell him that they appreciated what he has done.

“After writing these books it makes me appreciate every day and realizing that every day is a gift,” he added.