"You're going to put what WHERE?!?"

Tuesday morning and I cannot get an appointment with the two recommended acupuncturists or a massage therapist who specializes in neurological treatment (whatever that means...) and since my cement legs were becoming an obstacle in of themselves I knew that SOMETHING must be done. My mom advised me to go the emergency room to at least have someone look in my eyes and test my reflexes. Ah the emergency room, a place I am convinced cures you of whatever ails ya just by sitting in the lobby. After I give the triage nurse my sob story, I realize that it was not juicy enough to be taken in right away. "Cardiac pain trumps nerve problems" is what my R.N. mother tells me so I take a seat next to some cougar in a barely-there dress who is complaining about her arm. She gets to go in before I do. There must be some trick to getting through triage but I settle in with a 7Up and watch Home Improvement on the lobby tv. After an hour and a half I am called in! I am very excited that it is my turn and I scoot myself along. It seems that all the nurse is concerned about is a) if im pregnant b) why is my purse so heavy for such a small person and c) do I have a history of hypertension because my blood pressure is 155/122. I tell her a) definitely not b) I have no idea why and c) no I do not and it is probably just nerves. She takes my bag for me (how nice) and says that I must have a CT scan right away. As she races away with my stuff I yell down the hall "I'll be there in a bit" If I had to describe to you what my walk looked like I would say it was a hip-sway combined with a shuffle (?) My right leg tingled and had areas of numbness and so it displayed out as if I had no control over its movements (which I actually didn't...) So yea here I was in the ER in San Diego and had no idea at that point that my day there would last 7 hours. I had a CT scan which I hardly remember thanks to some good IV drugs, and a blood draw, urine, you know, the usual. I do remember being offended when the tech asked me if I could walk to get in (on?) the machine for the CT scan but that is all. So as I am lying in bed drifting in and out of sleep and in between text messaging, the nurses aide comes in with some papers for me to sign allowing them to do a lumbar puncture. *red flag alert* If you get quesy, do not read on. First I ask "I'm sorry but you're going to do WHAT to my low back" (aren't you impressed with my anatomy knowledge) And then I ask if its going to hurt and he says "well I dont know. Some people says it does, some people say it doesn't, I just really dont know" I look at him and tell him to please leave my corner of the world because he is of really no help to me at this point. I had had enough. As I lay there thinking about this needle going into my spine (ugh) the doctor comes in, and he is a reaaaal charmer. He is kind enough though to explain first what is going to happen ("it's only a small needle" - oh, helpful) and then walked me through once he got started. To be honest, the worst part was mental, the thought of this needle going into my spine and sucking fluid out. Dr.Levine leans over me to show me my cerebral spinal fluid, "oh cool" I say (and I really meant it) and he advises me to lie still for an hour on my side. Good times. So after two or so hours I start to lose my cool (the drugs had worn off) and begin to get really anxious. I wanted to go home so badly-I had been there since 11 am and it was now pushing five o'clock. My boyfriend was on his way over when the doctor finally came in to explain me what was going on. "You have to see a neurologist right away," his first words were, followed by "because I think you have MS." My jaw dropped and I must have given him a look to prompt him to say,"oh do you have a history of MS in your family?" "Uh nooooo, but I believe that I am about twenty-years too young for MS." ( still had my pride-and an attitude apparently) He went on to explain that the protein levels in my spinal fluid were elevated and my liver enzymes were also high, indicating that I had something neurological going on and that I needed to see a neurologist as soon as possible. As he went on to recommend some "very young and cool neuros that I think you'll like" I was thinking "yea I'll go see a neurologist when I have time." My level of denial had apparently grown in the seven hours of lying in that hospital bed with nothing but my phone and "Everybody Loves Raymond" blaring on my bedside television. About twenty minutes or so after Chris arrived I was discharged. I had spent all day by myself in the ER and was in near hysterics when Chris arrived. "Please please please dont leave me!" I cried. He reassured me that they were not going to do anything else to me. The ER discharged me and I went on my way. I was so worried about my car in the parking lot so I drove home. To be honest with you, I have little recollection of the drive home (or the trip to Ralph's to get some Motrin) but I do remember not being able to turn my head, which is always great when driving the San Diego freeways, right?!? I got home from the ER and did not know what to do with myself. I decided to eat. I watched some tv. I tried to shower but it was too painful to stand. SO, I went to bed. It took me awhile to actually fall asleep despite my exhaustion because my legs now shook and moved side to side as if I had restless leg syndrome. Although my legs moved, I had no control over them. Hmmm. What could it be?

Divine Intervention

Sunday came and went and now it was Monday morning. I went to babysit Mouse and Dylan who happen to be the best behaved kids ever and I was so happy that all they wanted to do was build legos and play Super Mario kart on the Wii. That meant that I could just sit for most of the time. I was also grateful that Mary Jane and Jason had taken the day off so they were also around which meant if anything happened and I couldn't help at least there were two other adults there. I found this comforting because by Monday morning my legs were not only still tingling but felt as though they had casts of cement on them. I could walk, but it was very slooooow and I had a hard time walking uphill or upstairs. Once I left Angie's, I went home to get ready for work. Remember that three-story condo that I was excited to have all to myself on Friday? Well three-stories is hard to conquer when you feel like you have cement logs for legs. I found myself using all the strength I had in my arms to pull my lower body up each stair. I thought about crawling but decided I probably couldn't get myself back up to standing.I started having trouble with the stairs the previous day when I attempted to carry groceries up them and nearly fell over. I thought about calling in sick to work but could not think of exactly what to tell them because I had no idea at this point. So I went to work and thanked the good Lord that I found a parking space right in front of the building which, trust me, truly is a miracle. I thought "God help me if a car whips around that corner because my reaction time is slim to none." As I walked in, or rather, as I ambled in, my boss, Dr. Smith, who rarely says two words to me, took notice of my gait. He asked me a few questions about it, decided that it had something to do with my piraformis (google that one) and gave me a card to see his acupuncturist right away. WHen I walked into the vision therapy room where I work, everyone took notice right away. For some reason I was surprised that people noticed but I must have been in great denial :-)
So long story short I was glad I went to work on that Monday because not only did I get great TLC, another number for an acupuncturist, and a head and neck massage, I also was able to present myself without having to explain anything, which is a good thing because I ended up in the ER the very next day. For the record, at this point I still thought I had a pinched nerve, a migraine, and now a piraformis predicament (thanks to Dr. Smith) and so decided that Tuesday morning I would try an make an appointment with either a chiropractor, acupuncturist or massage therapist to, you know, work out all the kinks :-)
Tuesday morning, however, turned out to be quite a different experience....

Taco Bell

Good morning! I realized laying in bed last night that in my exhausted state I did not explain what Guillain-Barre' really is. I then decided that it will be unveiled to you as I explain my experience with it. I was so tired yesterday after nearly three hours of shopping up at the Grove in LA. Yesterday was my one day off from physical therapy so my mom and I decided to have some fun. I can walk now at a slightly faster pace than a shuffle, but not quickly enough to not be a target for salespeople. If it was not for my mom, I would be the new owner of a 70$ nail kit that I would never use. The sales lady of course was going to lower the price to half off "just for me" but my human cane, aka my mother, was there to escort me off the premises. Once we made it into the shoe section at Nordstrom, I felt like I had to explain to the eager salesmen that I was not actually looking at the shoes as much as I was looking to see if my feet were moving one in front of the other. Sorry gentlemen. 

So today is August 20th but lets venture back to the start of all this: July 17th. It was a Friday and my roommates were in Vegas. I was excited to have our three story condo to myself. I do not work on fridays and for some reason I was extremely tired, so tired in fact that I could not get myself up off the couch. So I turned on the tv and subjected myself to Vh1's top 100 list of one-hit-wonders of the 1980s. I slept through most of it so please don't ask me who made the list. I did manage to get up and turn the AC on because I was convinced that I was slowly dying of heat exhaustion because I felt I was stuck to that couch. I did not eat anything all day until I decided it was a good idea to go get some Taco Bell. *red flag alert* I am on a gluten free diet and have been for over 5  years. Taco Bell, although deeeelicious, is NOT gluten free. Why would I subject my body to this poison and not even care? Subconsciously I must have known that my body was failing me so whattheheckhowaboutsomenachos? I was clearly out of my mind. 

I woke up Saturday the 18th with tingling from my knee down to my toes on my right leg. I of course thought that I had slept on it wrong and tried to move it around. The tingling never went away upon standing and moving around so I thought 'oh I pinched a nerve' and went on with my day. MY DAY, however, consisted of a trip to Home Depot (ugh) and nailing down artificial grass in Chris's yard in 1000 degree weather and riding my back with a basket full of sod back and forth to the dumpster. I kept having to go inside and lay down and drink water because, again, I thought I had heat exhaustion. I found it taxing to walk very far at Home Depot and uncomfortable to sit very long at Lord Winston's very first puppy training class. Every move I made seemed to be uncomfortable.  Saturday night rolled around and I again did not feel like eating anything, not even popcorn at the movies. That should have been my first clue because I sometimes go to the movies just in order to get popcorn and a slurpee. My boyfriend was concerned that I walked past the concession stand and actually snuck out of the movie theater to get me some popcorn. By the time the movie was over, about ten o'clock, I had to cancel plans to go out dancing with friends because I wanted to go to bed. I thought that I was tired of course from a hard day of work, but never thought that it was because my neurological system was compromised...

..I know it is about to get REALLY exciting. stay tuned :-)

Welcome to my blog!

After much careful consideration (and asking my facebook friends), I have decided to blog about my experience with Guillain-Barre'. I am still not 100% sure whether the 'a' follows the 'i' in Guillain (?) but I don't think it matters at this point. I am also trying to remember from my Spanish classes in high school how to do the accent point over a letter. As you readers can note, I am new to this blogging stuff. Anyway. Guillain-Barre'. Let me spare you the Google search, because it will only frighten you. Guillain-Barre' is a syndrome, not a disease, and the difference enlies in that GB has no known cause unlike a disease. There is not much research that can be done because it comes on so suddenly and randomly. You can ask a doc as many questions about the possible causes of GBS 'til you are blue in the face and he or she will say "maybe" or "could be" (now isn't that refreshing. ha) Now that I have you all intrigued, this blog will take you through my days with GBS. As I write this on August 19th, I am sitting at my parent's house recuperating. My journey with this french disease started on July 18th. Recovery can last anywhere from 3 weeks to three years and my doc told me that I am on the 6 week route. In my professional opinion, I should be 100% back to EJ-self before you can sing "a turkey named burt" -a kindergarten thanksgiving classic! Since I am easily fatigued, you will have to stay tuned! I hope you are all as excited as I am lol.