What is a ‘mild’ case of GBS?

“…CONCLUSIONS:
Cases of mild GBS reach a clinical nadir in a similar time to those with more severe disease. Treatment may be unnecessary in patients who are able to walk during the second week of illness, but observation until approximately the eighth day seems appropriate to be certain that the illness does not progress. In all likelihood there are mild cases of GBS that never come to the attention of a neurologist…”

tada….

“…Most large randomized treatment trials for GBS have used an inability to walk as the enrollment criterion…”

Therefore, one might conclude that a mild case of GBS is one in which the patient never loses the abillity to walk.

K. It looks like mine would be classified as ‘mild’. I was able to sort of walk – mostly crawl. The neuro sent me home but did want someone with me. That didn’t happen as I lived alone but had one scare with swallowing and had a ‘come to Jesus meeting’ on my couch. I didn’t drive for 2 months, didn’t work for 4 months (only to be fired when I returned because I looked just fine). Also remember knocking a liter of soda pop out of the frig and rolling in on the floor to couch only to figure out I couldn’t open it. No reflexes then and 13 years later still none. Even with my casing being mild – it is still the gift keeps on giving!

Hope this answers your question.

I am with Crissy, mild can mean many things depending on the person. If you arent vented and can sort of function, it is considered mild. Doesnt mean the end results will be any better or worse. Some are worse off than those who had awful cases. It greatly depends on the person and the way it hits em.

I was mild. Did have breathing and digestive issues, could barely walk but could shuffle slowly. None of it felt mild thats for sure!

I think that one thing that has been forgotten is what the neuro calls mild in a person can be different that what another neuro rates it. Just like the effect on each individual can very, so can the diagnoses by each neuro be different.

My Neurologist may have me down as mild. Not because of my muscle tests in the ER, those were standard GBS. It is because my very rapid response to ivig. I still needed intubation before and inpatient rehab after ivig. He also requested that I max out my sick leave. I may have sunk very low and come back really fast. A ‘V’ shaped recovery. We’ll see… Tending to be positive and joking around a lot helps me with the stress.

Did anyone feel like the neuropathic “princess and the pea”? I swore to everyone that a steel bar kept gouging me the the back in the in-house rehab hospital bed. You know what it actually was?!? The sheet they lay across the middle of the bed to use to pick you up in an emergency. Just one small sheet layed over the fitted sheet. Nuts right?

Mine was classified as minor because it took it a weeks to move above my knees.

Where as the doctors claim it typically goes from your toes to head overnight

Chrissy,
I did not realize that we had similar experiences…even after reading many of your posts from the past 4 years. The ER sent me home with a broken ankle, instructed me NOT to put weight on it/use crutches, and would not listen when I told him I could not stand and I lived alone!! I couldn’t even Sorta walk..I was like a rag doll. ..I started off scooting on my bottom and then I got strong enough to crawl! Luckily I had a half year in sick days and also was in a sick leave bank. My principal hounded me to retire early. (Her karma will come back to her!!) I could only eat what was on the bottom rungs of the refrigerator. So I closed the door and sat on the cold linoleum floor eating…too much effort to crawl back to the dining room floor!. My knees eventually developed calluses from the hardwood floors. I had to chew eat mouthful of food 50 times and wash it down with a carbonated soda. I used a butter knife to open the soda can..plastic coat hanger to turn on the lights, and had to use sofa cushions like steps to get up to the sofa..which I threw a leg over and rolled onto it!! Didn’t get in my bed or the tub for 5 months. BUT I did have a man on Match.com (who I had barely started corresponding with before I went down with GBS) offer to drive over an hour and come up to put me in the tub!! Yeeech…. My piano tuner offered to strap me in his van and take me to the library..(not telling me that I could order the books on line and he could have picked hem up.)
Is this what they mean by Blondes have more fun???

MILD is like Hot sauce….it is still spicy….If one has to be hospitalized, you have moved out of the MILD category. Maybe we should come up with categories for GBS…..Mild, UH OH, Houston we have a problem, and GOD help me!

Jason, I disagree with your doctor…it took me months for it to get full-blown…but that is because I was on tons of supplements. I still couldn’t stand for 4-5 months. I think PAt is right….it depends on which doctor you see. I still like my categories better.

worse yet, neuro’s can’t even sort out their definitions of PAIN!
What is one docs’ version of ‘MILD’ is anothers’ version of ‘UH-OH’ getting worse? Some docs are open minded and amend their initial decisions then amend them again and again…causes confusion? But as long as they get YOU the best and right treatments? Your goal is being met. If not? Time for second opinions…. As to what that treatment should be…Only you can decide if it’s working or other steps and tests could be taken to get you more comfortable, at least.
IF you and your treating doc are communicating well, about how things are progressing, and how meds and other treatments are working? Keep asking questions and keep a good list of what is working well & when, then what is NOT and when. Facts drive doc treatments, not emotions nor ‘feelings’ [odd pun here? sorry] don’t count for a thing! Sensations are a different matter, as is body Function…such as walking and more! They can and DO change! Usually for the worse. My heart goes out to you, I was in your boat once, and the second opinions saved my life! Easier said than done? But worth the doing! Hope and good things!

[quote=fairly_odd_mother]If you arent vented and can sort of function, it is considered mild.[/quote]

I was completely paralyzed from the waist down & partially paralyzed from the waist up. I couldn’t sit up in bed (my body would just slowly scrunch down or slide to the side). I couldn’t feed myself or sip from a straw (couldn’t grasp with fingers, couldn’t use muscles in face & lips). I talked with a slur & drooled. I couldn’t brush my hair or hold a phone to my ear. I couldn’t roll over in the bed. I couldn’t even press the call button for help.

I responded quite well to IVIG though (it stopped the [B]progression[/B] of the paralysis pretty quickly) so [U]I didn’t have to be vented[/U]. The next few years were spent slowly getting functions back (although it’s been 8 years now & my left side is still pretty weakened – no reflexes in my left leg & it drags sometimes, I constantly drop things out of my left hand, and my face droops on the left & makes it difficult to eat).

So was mine a “mild” case???

One-Birdie,
Love that name. My Cockateil Percy was the Love of my life….he is in my freezer …since when he died. I loved him so much it broke my heart.
Back to your post…No Way were you a mild case….I do not care what any neuro might say. You were a Holy Moley!!!! Or GOD Help ME!! On a scale of 1-10, I would put you at an 8.5 or 9.
God bless you…

[QUOTE=OneBirdie]I was completely paralyzed from the waist down & partially paralyzed from the waist up. I couldn’t sit up in bed (my body would just slowly scrunch down or slide to the side). I couldn’t feed myself or sip from a straw (couldn’t grasp with fingers, couldn’t use muscles in face & lips). I talked with a slur & drooled. I couldn’t brush my hair or hold a phone to my ear. I couldn’t roll over in the bed. I couldn’t even press the call button for help.

I responded quite well to IVIG though (it stopped the [B]progression[/B] of the paralysis pretty quickly) so [U]I didn’t have to be vented[/U]. The next few years were spent slowly getting functions back (although it’s been 8 years now & my left side is still pretty weakened – no reflexes in my left leg & it drags sometimes, I constantly drop things out of my left hand, and my face droops on the left & makes it difficult to eat).

So was mine a “mild” case???[/QUOTE]

I don’t agree with any of the mild cases being called mild. But that is how the dr’s feel. Yours was def not mild. Did they tell you it was mild? I could barely walk, lots of pain, etc and according to some dr’s manual my case was mild. I don’t think any of them are ever mild because it is HELL regardless of where you are on the GBS meter. And I certainly do not agree that “if you can walk, you are recovered” because that is another thing doctors say and agree with. I feel if we still have limitations and damage and residuals that alter our original lifestyles, we are not recovered.
Recovered: 1
: to regain a normal position or condition (as of health)

Most of us do not regain a NORMAL position or condition, so how can we be considered recovered?

It seems as if anything that hasn’t actually killed us–is considered ‘mild’.

But if we were to call GBS a ‘stroke’, because of many of the similarities in the symptoms and resulting condition of the patient, would the doctors call the condition ‘mild’ then? At present, we all see those tv ads warning people to watch for stroke symptoms, and to get to the ER asap; and everyone realizes the seriousness of stroke, and the staff and public have nothing but sympathy and concern for the survivors of stroke.

Is GBS mild? NO!!! We should be getting the same understanding, respect and care from the medical staff as stroke victims do.
Instead it is just considered mild GBS, by version of being compared to death or permanent quadriplegia and paraplegia.

“mild”…hello…I think that means “mild and miserable!!!” Just saw my neurologist after my 3 year “hellaversarie” and she thought I was doing “great”!!! Can’t sleep more than 45 minutes at a stretch, can barely talk without stammering, and run into walls many times a day…and have the bruises to attest to it! But, I never had a trach tube…so you tell me!?! Yes, I am VERY fortunate and yet, forever altered! My neuro told me, “You will never be the same.” and I respected that she told me that, even for a “mild” case. There may be a cure, but it ain’t gonna be this year!!!

‘Mild’ case can be termed as the deterioration or progression of GBS, is arrested at an early date.

As was my case, the very first day I was not able to climb on my own a little big step in the morning, by evening to cross a small step was not possible. Even that day I had to take lot of efforts to put my motorbike on stand (pulling by hand). Next day when I tried to get up from bed, I was not able to do so. I needed support to stand up from my wife. But once stand up; I was able to walk on my own. Similarly, next day while eating I was not able to break a very soft chapatti by one hand.

We could say that progression (of GBS) or deterioration/weakness of my hands and legs was gradually increasing.

I was referred to Nero-physician within next two days and after one day’s examination, he diagnosed my case as GBS and immediately started injecting three days course of IVIG which resulted in stoppage of progression of GBS.

I was away from work and at home for about one month under physiotherapy. I started driving my car and motorbike after three to four months.

Am sure, immediate diagnosis caused my case as mild, otherwise it could have turned up in major case had it further been entered in breathing system or my hands and legs became totally paralyzed

I consider my case as mild owing only to what I have read about others on this board. I started with a severe back ache/cramping that only came on in the middle of the night and I found relief about 45 minutes after taking 1 and 1/2 Norco 10/325. This pain came on every night, regardless of the bed I was using. After a couple of weeks of this I began to get numbness and tingling in my hands and feet. After a few days of this, the numbness and tingling started to expand and after three more days, I was admitted via the ER paralized from the chest down and a lung capacity cut in half. I was diagnosed GBS and expedited to the ICU where preperations were being planned for a ventilator. IVIG was started withing two hours of my initial dose, the progression of the disaese halted, ventilation was not neccesary, and after receiving the 5th dose I was able to get up and hobble around with a walker. On the 9th day after diagnosis, I was discharged and walked with the assistance of a nurse to my waiting wife who drove me home. I received no professional PT only an at home exercise plan. The pain in my back subsided and never returned. I have taken no meds for the GBS, other than some pain meds to help with leg/knee pain that I believe came on as a result of my irregular “duck walk”. That has resolved as my walking returned to normal. I still have numbness in my legs and feet, but I can now feel the water in the shower hitting my feet. I still have left eye blurring and throat issues. The most noticeable residual I have is fatigue. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and feel “cured”, but I know that by the end of the day that I will feel exhausted and my feet will feel like they weigh 20 lbs each and that my shoes are “full of gravel”.
I am hopeful that I will continue to heal and gain back the endurance I once enjoyed. But if not, and I stay just as I am, I will continue to be forever grateful to God, my loving wife, AND this board where I have learned sooooo much and made an internet “family”! 🙂

Goodness sake! The only people who use the term “mild” with GBS are those who have not had it – or are in a close loving relationship with one who is/was suffering. I bet even my children think my case was mild, because when they see me in church once a week for an hour I walk, talk and behave normally. Or when they call me on the phone I sound normal, but they can’t see the hands jumping with spasms, they can’t see me not walking because it is the end of the day and when I move around it is more of a drunken stagger on swollen feet. And they sure don’t wake up in bed beside me at night when the pain from cramping feet, leg pain, hands curled into fists that don’t open make me cry. Only my beloved husband is there for all that. He was also the only one who sat by my side for 8 days and nights until I turned the corner and started to be able to wiggle toes and fingers. So as not to panic the family he kept the reports upbeat and happy – and I doubt if anyone but the rest of you who have “walked” the GBS road know how tough it is. Mild as a case of hot peppers? Youbetcha! Ain’t no such a thing a mild!

I agree with all of you. Though the case is mild or major, there are lots of residuals. There is no limit or duration. Spasm, tingling, exhaustion, numbness, backache, headache and lot of such things happen from time to time. In a minute, you have headache (which I heard from Doctors it is a side effect of IVIG), in another minutes, it goes out and numbness in hands or feet starts. After a good sleep also, you may feel fatigue in the morning. In the middle of the night you wake up due to cramps or spasm in the legs. In that case, you have to walk for some minutes; coming out of bed, the cramps vanishes.
These all ins and outs are the part and parcel of our life now. You do not know when and where and what will take place at any moment in your body. But be sure, my experience during last 5 years says, it lasts for a few minutes or hours, may be with or without medicine. In a minute you are normal in minutes you become sufferer. But what to do after all these are all the gifts of GBS.