Keep Positive – There is Hope!!

I am writing this in order to encourage others as I remember the day I was diagnosed. I immeadiately started researching GSB on the internet and was pretty depressed as most info was fairly negative – eg. most people take years to recover and some never recover…

My story (so far), however, has been (cross my fingers) positive. So for all you new GBS’er there is hope!!!

The Short Story:
I was diagnosed in October 2004 at the age of 35. After being hospitalized for about 12 days including being virtually paralyzed from the waist down, I “shuffled” out of hospital. I then commenced 3-4 months of physiotherapy. Since that time I have basically grown stronger with every passing day. I am now “basically” back to normal including lifting weights, snowboarding, golfing, rollerblading, and jogging. While I don’t believe my legs are back to 100% strength (I think they are probably 95%), I truly (hope and) believe that with time they will develop back to 100%. Other than the strength issue, the only other issue for me is muscle cramps. Occassionally, my fingers, toes and leg muscles will cramp up (aka seize up) which will last from a few seconds to a few minutes – which can at times be very painful. However, again, with the passage of time, these cramps seem to lessen.

Given other GSB’ers stories, I obviously feel blessed by my recovery (so far). I truly wish your recovery is as good if not better than mine.

JS