Stevenson's Levitt fighting to regain his health - and his game
There was nothing unusual about the way Jeff Levitt felt when he quietly crawled into bed one Sunday night in mid-January.
Little did he know that drifting peacefully off to sleep as he usually did would be the calm before the most unusual storm of his life.
When Levitt woke up that next morning, his body was in full-out crisis mode.
"I thought I was dying," said Levitt, a junior guard on the Stevenson boys basketball team.
Levitt's stomach and back were throbbing. He could barely walk, or talk for that matter.
His parents rushed him to the emergency room at Highland Park Hospital.
Food poisoning was discussed as a possibility until he was told by a radiologist that he likely had appendicitis.
"So we were thinking that he was going into surgery," said Michael Levitt, Jeff's dad. "But then the surgeon saw him and was like, 'I don't think so.' So then we were back at square one."
In some ways, they're still there.
It's been nearly four weeks since that awful Monday morning, and despite a three-day hospital stay and a battery of tests, Levitt still doesn't know exactly why his body went haywire.
The best doctors can surmise is that he got some kind of serious intestinal infection.
"It's been frustrating not knowing for sure," Levitt said. "The doctors weren't able to give us any specifics, other than it was like some kind of horrible flu or infection that I had never been (exposed to), so my body just wasn't able to fight it off."
And yet, Levitt still tried to play the part of fighter.
Sure, he was exhausted, and weak, and losing weight - around 15 pounds total - seemingly by the minute. But once he found out that surgery was off the table, he was determined to get back on the basketball court. And fast.
Levitt has stayed ahead of the curve his entire career, playing with the sophomores as a freshman and starting on the varsity last year as a sophomore. He's gotten to know the players in the senior class very well and he wanted to be around for their final days.
"They're the guys I've been with the entire time I've been at Stevenson," Levitt said. "I knew there was no way I was going to miss the rest of the season and miss playing with the seniors. I knew I had to come back for those guys."
It finally happened. Levitt made his much-anticipated return last Saturday at Warren - 19 days and five missed games after his ordeal began.
Besides looking a little pale and slightly thinner, Levitt looked remarkably like his old self - and he performed like it, too.
He came off the bench three minutes into the game and within seconds had an open look at a 3-pointer on the baseline. He launched and hit nothing but net. Late in the second quarter, he got almost the same exact opportunity. And that one went in, too.
"I was pretty amped up after that," Levitt said. "They were originally going to keep me in for only two to three minutes at a time. I had a lot (of doubt) going through my head before the game, a lot of jitters. I didn't know how it was all going to work out. But after hitting those shots, it was relief. It felt good to see them go through and from then on, there was no way I wanted to come out."
Levitt finished with 9 points, including a couple of key free throws down the stretch that helped Stevenson seal a 59-56 upset victory over one of the top teams in Lake County.
Talk about a made-for-Hollywood comeback.
"It was definitely more than we could have ever expected, especially shooting-wise and conditioning-wise," Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said of Levitt's return. "I think it helped that he hit his first couple of shots. I was real excited for him. The kids were real excited. They were just so energized by having him back. He brings a lot of leadership to the table for us."
Levitt was scoring about 10 to 12 points per game when he got sick. But his real value shows in the way he directs the offense, provides a calming influence on the floor, and handles the ball.
He would do all of that at full speed - and almost never leave the game.
Levitt estimates that he was averaging around 31 minutes a game - out of 32 possible minutes. Going from that to nothing, practically overnight, made Levitt's illness even tougher for him to swallow.
"It was definitely weird. It's not something I could get used to," Levitt said. "I've never even come off the bench. Never in my career. Even when I was playing fifth and sixth grade AAU and seventh and eighth grade at school, I always played a lot and I always started.
"When I got out (of the hospital) I came to the games and sat on the bench in street clothes and that was horrible, too. I see a game and I don't even know what it is or what it's called, but my blood starts pumpin' and I just want to play and get in there and do something to help out."
Levitt is just grateful that there's still plenty of time for him to do that this season. By the time the state tournament starts in March, he could be close to full strength again.
"At first, I was definitely let down about (getting sick)," said Levitt, who also had to worry about making up all five of his semester exams, which he missed while he was in the hospital. "It was like, 'Why now? It's the middle of the season. The games started to pick up, conference games were picking up. And then to get taken out of it...
"But I can definitely (still make something of the season). There's still a lot of time left. I definitely want to get back to my starting spot, playing basically the whole game. I hope that's possible. I think that can happen. But if it doesn't, I'll do whatever it is the teams needs me to do to win games. As long as we win, that's all I care about."
pbabcock@dailyherald.com