A Whole New World

Last week, we entered a very new, bizarre adventure. On Sunday, October 30, my husband, Michael, was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS). It started on Saturday night when Michael felt a little wobbly while walking around the house. We first noticed it when he came to the table for dinner, but we didn't really think much of it because we had been sick with sinus infections. It was just like his knees were going out on him. We had walked around the Farmers' Market that morning even though we weren't feeling great, so we figured we just overdid it. He went to bed shortly after dinner because he was not feeling well. 


On Sunday, he got up and felt still weaker in his legs and some in his arms but was still able to walk. He stayed in bed most of the day, and I ended up going to the walk-in clinic for my sinus infection. After I got a shot and some meds, I was much better, but he seemed to be getting worse. We contemplated taking him to the clinic but figured they would not be able to do anything for him there. After lunch, he tried to get out of bed to do the the bathroom and ended up crawling there. I found him laying on the bathroom floor and could not get him up. He couldn't grab anything to help me either. I was finally scared and called his mom. Fortunately, my mom was already at my house for the weekend. We ended up getting him in a rolling office chair and wheeled him out to his mom's car. Then, we were off to the ER to wait for HOURS... on the weekend, no less! No one seemed to take us very seriously while we waited, and he continued to get weaker. 


Once we were finally in an ER room, doctors started getting worried, and GBS came up immediately. When we started out in the ER, he could hold a pen & sign his name. By the time he was admitted to the hospital, he could not even hold the pen, let alone sign anything. Without much hesitation, he was admitted to ICU. The only thing that took very long was getting the room ready, and he was moved upstairs at 3:00 am. By that time, he couldn't even hold or squeeze a nurse call button -- not even the special one they arranged. Fortunately, he was his nurse's only patient that night, and she stayed with him through the night. We were sent home because ICU has very strict rules on visitors and visiting hours. And so, the journey began....