These are the typical worries of high school seniors:

Should I go to college? What should I study? Where should I go? Should I get a job? Will I get financial aid? How am I going to pay for my car? Who should I ask to prom? What should I do Friday night? Is this love? Will I ever outgrow acne? When can I be rid of curfew?

Luke Szczech, a swimming standout at Rocori High School, was working last summer on his answers to some of those questions.

But the senior’s split-second decision to tuck his chin as he dived into Thyen’s Lake near Richmond forever changed the way he approached them.

His choice left him a quadriplegic. Now the quiet 17-year-old tries to adjust to life in an immobile body while he rewrites his future.

“I got angry at God at first,” Luke said. “But then I thought, ‘Maybe there’s something else for me to do and this is just a way to get there.’ ”

These days it takes the help of his parents, nurses, sisters and friends for Luke to go anywhere or do most things. They help him take medication, write school notes, talk on the phone and dress himself.

Everyone is learning the art of balancing his need for independence with his medical need for constant assistance.

How is it going?

“It’s going,” Luke’s dad, Gene Szczech responds.

“It’s tiring, but good,” he adds.

Out to dinner

After eight months in hospitals and rehabilitation, Luke had only been back in his St. Augusta home three weeks when he and his mother, Jane Szczech, picked out a black tuxedo with a cherry-red bow tie and vest to match the dress of his prom date, Linsey Matteson.

Linsey has been a good friend, Luke said. He called her to ask her to prom during his eight-month hospital stay.

“She’s funny, cute, you know,” Luke said.

Luke, Linsey and three other couples decided to splurge and have dinner last month at Anton’s in Waite Park on the cold Saturday night of Rocori’s prom.

Finding a handicapped accessible restaurant was as important as deciding whether the group craved Italian or Mexican. His father had called Anton’s weeks before prom to make sure staff could accommodate a motorized wheelchair. But it was Luke who called for reservations while one of his parents held the phone to his ear. After all, it was his prom.

On prom night, he drove his motorized wheelchair up to the table, ordered steak and had his date feed him.

In another room, out of sight, sat Gene, Luke’s little sister, Mandi, and a nurse. For now, Luke needs around-the-clock nursing care, but the trio took pains not to intrude on the celebration with friends on this special night.

Trust

The teenager’s hope for privacy vanished quickly after the accident. He accepted he would always need help.

“I like my privacy, but now it doesn’t matter,” he said.

That’s good because privacy is almost nonexistent in the split-level Szczech home.

The door to his bedroom has been removed. His closet doors were taken out to help make room for the hospital bed that replaced his own. A dresser no longer fits in the room.

Baths happen every other night in the kitchen. The family’s upstairs bathroom isn’t handicap-accessible, so Gene concocted a makeshift tub from a wading pool and a garden hose that runs from the bathroom.

They draw the curtains on the patio door. His parents and nurse wash him.

“He’s kind of out in the open,” said Julee Kath, one of Luke’s daytime nurses. “He has to put a lot of trust in people. ... There’s a lot of room for error, and he has to trust that’s not going to happen. Trust is a difficult thing to learn for anybody. And he had to learn that at a difficult age and at a very difficult time in his life.”

Luke will graduate on time with his class.

It’s a feat that was hindered by distance, illnesses and surgeries. Luke spent time at St. Cloud Hospital, the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, in Minneapolis, and Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare, St. Paul.

Teachers allowed him to take two classes — Consumer Economics and Turning Points in Ancient History — via webcam while hospitalized. Friends and family members carried homework back and forth.

Luke rejoined his class at Rocori in March. Kath is his constant companion during the day — taking notes in classes, helping him get around and watching for any medical emergencies.

Homework poses a problem. All of his work is dictated to a nurse or one of his parents. It’s frustrating, especially when it comes to writing papers.

“If I’m writing an essay, I can’t sit downstairs and listen to music,” Luke said. “I have to concentrate more now.”

The frustration and his hard work will pay off in the future, said Craig Lieser, Luke’s guidance counselor.

“He’s a pretty bright man,” he said. “With the support of family and people who are willing to help, he’s going to have great success.”

College

Before the accident, Luke wanted to study pharmacy at North Dakota State University.

After the accident, he needed a new plan.

His parents have talked to school officials at St. Cloud State University and St. John’s University.

Luke worries about having access to classrooms and other buildings. He also needs some special attention from faculty and staff.

Kath will gladly help him at college, she said. She has no doubts he would be able to make it.

“He dreams big,” she said.

Classes aside, Luke worries his paralysis will make it difficult to meet friends and girls. He hopes they will see him, and not the chair.

“I can’t go walking up to them and say, ‘What’s going on?’ ” he said. “I’ll have to roll up to them.

“They’ll see me in a wheelchair and think that I’m not all there.”

Luke plans to live at home for the first two years. Maybe then he’ll move out on his own and earn that pharmacy degree.

Grand march

Future plans, routines and unfortunate accidents didn’t bother Luke on his prom night.

After dinner, his dad and nurse drove him and his friends to the school in a rented van.

Luke and Linsey were one of the last couples in the grand march lineup.

As the couple smiled at the crowded gym, the audience cheered and gave them a standing ovation.

Jane had tears in her eyes.

For her, it symbolized how far her son had come and how far he still wants to go.

The prognosis

The accident bruised 1 to 2 inches of Luke’s spinal cord, said Dr. Mark Gormley Jr., who specializes in pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation at Gillette, where Luke was treated from October until his return home in March.

The bruise is so severe that the nerves never completely healed, causing the paralysis, Gormley said.

“It’s like cutting a telephone wire,” he said. “No matter how much is cut, the signals aren’t getting there.”

Luke faces physical therapy for the rest of his life, and will continue to live as a quadriplegic, Gormley said.

Despite the grim prognosis, Luke stays hopeful and considers what future medical science might hold for him.

“I figure bruises heal,” Luke said.

He’s already grappling with the possibilities of stem-cell research on spinal injuries and how that might play into his Catholic faith.

What if it one day could give back the use of his arms and legs? What would he do?

He would discuss it with his parents and priest, he said.

“I would love to walk again or even use my hands,” Luke said. “Those things worry me. I don’t know what I would do.”

sctimes.com