menactra vaccination

My college freshman bound daughter received the menactra immunization last June ’05. 31 days later she began to feel weakness in her legs which progressed to her arms and crept up to her chest and stopped there. We thought she had lyme disease and was on antibiotic. She seemed to improve after 3 weeks and we brought her to college. Within 5 days we had to pick her up and she missed her 1st semester of college. We spent the next several weeks going from doctor to doctor because the lyme test were all coming up negeative. When the announcement by the CDC and FDA came out on Sept. 30, 2005 of 5 teens coming down with GBS after receiving the menactra vaccination for meningitist, we felt we finally had a clue as to what was making her weak and unable to walk normally. Unfortunately the neurologist seemed to blow us off. This was now almost 3 months since she first became sick. Upon our insistance, he did perform the spinal tap, emg and nerve conductivity tests. They came up negative. We think that she had a mild case of GBS and because it was months later the tests did not come up positive. Several of her doctors said that it sounded like GBS but no one was willing to treat her or make a direct connection to the menactra vaccination. During her recovery, she experienced a lot of physical and emotional pain. We, her parents had to embrace the likelihood of GBS and help her recover. After months of celebrex, physical therapy, counseling and a lot of family support and prayer, she began college in January of ’06. She is doing very well, but sometimes feels fatique and strange sensations, especially in her legs. If I had to do it over again, I would still have chosen the menactra vaccination because meningitis can be deadly. But the real problem is the lack of knowledge that the medical community has of GBS, especially those cases that are mild. It seems that they only recognize the 20% who need ventilators.