At the Two Week Mark
Tomorrow morning marks the two week mark since I had my first symptoms of Guillian-Barre. It seems longer than that, for many reasons. The virus that probably started all of this, had me out sick from work part of the week before that, so I really haven’t had a normal week in the last three. I’ve forgotten what normal is at this point.
For the most part, I am feeling much better. My leg strength is starting to return. I don’t have to hold onto walls when I walk, and my legs don’t shake with every step. They are still weak, but I see gains there every day as I get more mobile.
My vision is back to normal, so I’m not getting the headaches I was at the beginning, but because I’m laying around more, I’m prone to get migraines that require ibuprofen and ice packs when my neck decides to act up. One of the benefits of getting an MRI done as part of the diagnosis process was that we got a really good picture of my why I get these migraines, and once I recover from the GB, we can treat that with exercise and stretching.
The numbness is still an issue, especially in my fingers and left leg. Typing a lot exacerbates the tingling in my fingers, and the leg numbness comes and goes depending on time of day and fatigue. First thing in the morning is generally my most numb time of day, as if my brain has shut down my skin overnight to feed energy to somewhere else in my body, like Jean-Luc Picard ordering “all power to the main deflector.”
I am working again, though from home and not full days yet. I worked about 4.5 hours today, and laid down on the couch and napped for an hour this afternoon. I absolutely needed it. I expect it will be early next week before I’m back to full days, and I have no idea when I’ll be able to go into the office on a regular basis.
Once I’m back to work full time, and have energy to spare, I will resume my more aggressive writing and blogging pace. I hope I don’t lose too many regular readers through this slow time. I have to budget my energy right now, and even though I have dozens of ideas for blog entries, my priorities have to be my health, my family and my paying job.
But I truly do miss blogging and hope to be back very soon.
Joe Beernink 
Joe, I’m happy to hear of your continued improvement. I know it’s hard when you can’t scratch that blogging itch, but I’m sure your loyal readers want you to put your health and well-being first! Good health to you.
Pingback: Six Months with Guillain-Barre Syndrome |