Hello Everyone! Bonnie I was wondering that too!

I think it did both, but only because of the little that people know about the illness it brought it to someones attention. I see it being more positive then negative It will help byt getting the name Guillain Barre Syndrome out into the publice and make the professionals more aware that it is not the first illness that they test for. They still find it by process of elimination. The fact that May was GBS Awareness Month I think the article did just that. The fact that someone that was in a public postion and how it effected her life gets the name into more households because of the human interest story.

The fact that Betty did not hit bottom as hard as some of us. Also, just as a precaution, the fact that she was only, from what I read, put on assisted breathing will show that she had a milder case of GBS which is not the case of many others.

In articles that I have read about Andy Griffith it took him 3 years to return to working in Hollywood. Locally we had a dentist that had to give up his practice and went into teaching the dental students. My friend’s Son only had GBS from the waist down. Another local girl got it the day before her wedding and was married in her hospital gown and that video was played at her wedding with the guests, groom and wedding attendants all there to celebrate their wedding. Reservations for everything could not be canceled and with the guests coming from all over the country they thought it was best. Two weeks later the Bride walked out of the hospital. She had a little church wedding and reception so she could wear her wedding dress! So the more cases you hear about will do only good to show this disorder is different for every person. Locally there has been several cases where complications from other things also made their recovery slower. Not to mention the families that have lost members to cases that were fatal.

Being aware of GBS will help and maybe pick up some perks for more research. I don’t see it hurting those of us with residuals. We just have to talk about them to make sure that people hear about the severe cases and the possible variants of GBS like Miller Fisher and also CIDP which is the cronic form.

I am going to think possitive on this publicity. She is not out of the woods yet and she has just begun to fell the fatigue. Wait till she finds she is not able to live life as she did before, that the residuals will be always there to remind her she had GBS.