Basehor ? Nearly 18 months after bacterial meningitis almost claimed his life, Andy Marso has started work as a part-time sports reporter and columnist for a weekly newspaper in suburban Kansas City.

Marso contracted the disease when he was just weeks from graduating at the top of his journalism class at Kansas University. Toxins the disease released in his body destroyed skin tissue and forced doctors to amputate parts of his feet and all his toes and fingers, except his right thumb.

After months of hospitalization and rehabilitation, the 24-year-old drove himself to Lawrence from his parents’ home in Minnesota so he could begin his job at the Basehor Sentinel. His parents worried about everything from how he would take off the gas cap to whether he would be able to extract a single credit card from his wallet.

Marso was undaunted.

“It’s a matter of using your brain to think about how to do things that you used to not think about at all,” he said.

He no longer takes notes, instead recording interviews. And he uses his laptop differently, tapping out words with his right thumb and a tool wedged into what remains of his left hand.

Walking sometimes hurts his feet, but he is proud his wheelchair is stashed in the trunk of his car. “I’m just trying to get back to a little bit of normalcy at this point,” he said. “I want to be treated like I was before.”

The Sentinel held his position open for the 18 months while Marso endured surgeries and therapy.

“I’m back,” he wrote in the column published Sept. 29. “Beyond the scars and stumps, inside my heart and mind, I am the same guy I was before meningitis disfigured me.

“I hope to show that to the people of Basehor.”