I had Guillan-Barre Syndrome when I was about 12 -13.
I think my GBS was a reaction to a flu shot that I got in the ER when my Mom took me there. I had gotten through the worst of suffering from flu-like symptoms for two or three days and my Mom wanted to make sure it was okay for me to go back to school. This was in October of 74?
By the middle of November I was becoming progressively weaker - I walked back and forth to school with kids in the neighborhood everyday and I was beginning to have trouble walking up and down steps. One day after school, I couldn't make it up a small incline and had to take the long way home from school. I told my Mom that I didn't want to go to school anymore because something was wrong with me.
She took me to the hospital, I told them my symptoms, they performed lots of tests and several diagnoses were ruled out, Myasthenia Gravis among them. At the time, my Mom's sister, Olie had recently been diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis.
I then began to have issues with numbness and tingling in my hands, fingers, toes and feet. Get this: I couldn't keep my eyes from crossing. I could grasp a door knob but I couldn't grasp it tightly enough to turn it! I had a really hard time holding a pencil, too! By December, I was unable to walk even short distances without holding onto furniture or trailing the walls as my knees buckled often.
I'm guessing that my condition bottomed out in January or February. During that time I think I read that Andy Griffith was also recovering from GBS. I never lost the ability to breathe on my own and I never became incontinent. By the End of March, I was strong enough to return to school, but not for full days, yet.
During the same spring that I was recovering from GBS, Tycoon Ari Onasis and my Aunt Olie died from Myasthenia Gravis...
If the OP is reading this, I hope it means that you have fully recovered. I'm glad you're still with us...
Don't take any flu shots!
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