Nohren on road to recovery

Millie's Sports Chatter

Millie Lange

You never know where life will take you and what God has in store. I was recently stunned when I got the news that Monty Nohren, a basketball coach I have known for a long time, suffered a severe stroke. He was given only a few days to live.

Sunday, after talking with his wife Jolene at church, I was stunned once again . . . this time by good news. Monty is on the road to recovery. So Monday evening I once again talked with Jolene to find out how things are going and they are going very well, thanks to many answered prayers.

On Thursday, Nov. 19, Monty went in for a total knee replacement on his right leg. Then on Friday morning he suffered a stroke.

"He was put into the intensive care unit at St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital and they did an MRI on him," said Jolene. "After the results came back, the stroke was very extensive. Because he had just had knee surgery, they couldn't give him the drug to combat the stroke so they air-lifted him to St. Louis. They did another MRI and gave him three to five days to live.

"On the fourth day I asked if they could put in a temporary feeding tube so I could bring him by ambulance back to Effingham. They needed an accepting doctor and Dr. Aurora did that. We brought him back to Effingham where he still couldn't talk, see out of his right eye and his whole right side was completely paralyzed. I talked with the doctors and they did another test on him.

"Monty has a living will and he wants to be a donor. He has always asked me not to let him lie in a nursing home. I asked Dr. Aurora at that time how things were looking and he said it didn't look good.

"So I wanted to bring him home and have hospice come in. People at church were going to come to my home Sunday to move furniture around so I could have a hospital bed and have him come home.

"They took the feeding tube out Saturday and a nurse called me to come to the hospital. She called back when I was halfway there and said he has drunk two glasses of orange juice and eaten pudding. By the time I got there he'd had another glass of juice.

"When I was trying to give him a glass of water, I apparently wasn't doing it right and he took the glass away from me with his left hand and drank it himself. He has just taken off pretty good since then.

"We were going to put him in a nursing home for rehab and I went this morning (Monday) and they told me they wanted to move him to the fourth floor to work with him 10 days. They can work with him twice a day and get him built up before going to the nursing home.

"He was sitting up in a chair and used his left hand to feed himself. He can answer yes and no questions. He can say, hey, no, why and a couple of other words. Nothing big, but he's alert and knows what's going on.

"He still has a sense of humor. He broke down and cried because Ron Reed mentioned him on the radio program after Effingham's ballgame Saturday evening. His thought process is working, but the speech hasn't come yet.

"Dr. Dust checked him Sunday because Dr. Aurora was gone and his lungs, which had shut down when he had the stroke, were clearing up.

"This is all from the grace of God and all the prayers that have been offered up. It looks like he's on the road to recovery. I still want prayer for him and I appreciate it. I have been so at peace through all this and I know it's the grace of God and I want to shout the glory of God.

"People have been wonderful through all this. We have had calls from Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Kentucky from lots of people because of the dog trials he went to and lots of calls here in Illinois.

"The amount of prayers have been absolutely wonderful. And people have really helped out. For safety reasons, friends have taken his hunting dogs for him and another friend has taken all the guns from the house. We just want to thank everyone for what they've done."

That's great news. I just wanted to pass that along since I have had many people out there asking about Monty, who coached for many years at Stewardson-Strasburg High School and Effingham High School. Here's to you Monty, continue on the road to health and our prayers are still with you.

Now on to other news:

Effingham High School's Chad and Chase Green have both signed letters of intent to play baseball at Division I programs. The twins are heading in different directions. Chad will be pitching for the University of Louisville, while Chase will play shortstop for Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

Another baseball player, Teutopolis High School's Clint Lustig, recently inked a letter of intent to play for Eastern Illinois University. He will be pitching for the Panthers.

The college signing period began earlier this month.

A 1994 Effingham High School graduate, Ryan McDevitt, is a member of the varsity football staff at Stillman Valley High School. Stillman Valley defeated Tolono Unity Saturday for the Class 3A state football championship.

Altamont native Al Schroeder recently picked up his 500th career coaching victory. Schroeder is the volleyball coach at Lexington High School. He reached the victory when his team downed Flanagan-Cornell making his record 500-219. He is the 27th coach in the Illinois High School Association to reach 500 wins.

Millie Lange can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 124 or millie.lange@effinghamdailynews.com.

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