Guillain-Barre Syndrome

[cjlady17]

My husband is extremely sick in the hospital, his sympotms include extreme pain especially in his arms and legs. A shuffled gait, difficulty raising or lowering arms. His voice shakes and he stutters his words. Unfortunately, due to our opposing work situations we are hundreds of miles apart and he does not want me to risk my current position to come up to be with him until he finds out what is wrong with him. The doctors are stumped and can not seem to figure out what is wrong with him. I am in nursing schoo and I had an instructor immediately suggest GBS when I gave her a list of his symptoms. He has now been hospitalized for 5 days and there has been no change in his condition. None of the doctors have yet decided to check for GBS but I have suggested to my hubby to inquire about it. Has anyone else had issues with gettin the correct dx for the disorder and if so, in that period of time did your symptoms escalate or will (if this is indeed the issue) he stay in the same state he is currently in? As of right now he is able to get up and walk around, but it extremely painful to do so.

[mariono]

It took 7 days for me to get a diagnosis. My first symptoms were numbness in hands and feet, which gradually spread all over my body. I developed terrible pain in my stomach and trunk area and gradually got weaker to the point where I could not hold my body upright and my legs wouldn't work. The doctors initially were concentrating on the stomach/back pain and so were looking for kidney stones, gall bladder problems, liver, ulcers, aneurysm etc etc and did not take much notice of the numbness. After 6 days, all their tests had proven negative and they decided I needed to be referred to a Neurologist, who quickly summed up the symptoms and told me I had GBS. He took a lumbar puncture and this confirmed the diagnosis. My experience was that I slowly deteriorated for about three weeks, stayed stable for about 2 weeks, then started to slowly improve. It is now almost 3 months since first symptoms and I am about 85% recovered. But I must stress, I had a mild attack, I am told, people who have larger areas of their body affected seem to take longer to recover. The hell of it all is that no two cases are the same. I hope your husband is seeing a Neurologist, and they are specialised in this, the ordinary doctors always look for something else, as GBS is rather rare.

[gord]

perhaps you may want to read my posts" under do I have a story for you" may be of some help
gord

[ldestini947]

I have been been dealing with GBS now for a little over 3 Months. It took about a month to get diagnosed because initially my neuroligist diagnosed me with carpal tunnel in both hands. My symptoms started with numbness and tingling in hands and fingers, then went to my feet and then extreme muscle weakness. I even went to the emergency room to get some relief so I could continue working. The Doctor there just told me "this is an Emergency room, not a frustration clinic" and did nothing for me. I am a new nurse so I looked in my school books and found a small section about GBS. When his nurse finally called me back I told her that my symptoms were very close to GBS and they started taking me seriously. I had a spinal tap that showed high protein in my spinal fluid and I had 5 days of IVIG, which did no good because it was not done in time. I consider myself lucky because it could have been alot worse. I did not get admitted into the hospital and my respiratory function was not affected. I am now at about 75% back to normal. If your husband does have GBS, reasure him that it will get better. I was at the point I could not do anything for myself. My family had to feed me, bathe me, I could not walk by myself. When people told me it would get better, I though they were crazy. I am now doing pretty much everything for myself. Please keep us informed on how he is doing.

[EstelleF]

Hello, first off I am very sorry to hear about your husband. I had GBS in 2004 and my story is kind of similar. My spelling is horrible I am sorry. I had a baby in June and I went back to work about 3 or 4 days latter and I became really run down, oh I also had a blood transfusion after I had my baby. In august while working I began feeling very strange, painful burning and numbness. I was throwing up and I could barley move. Well I called my boss to come to work and I went home for what reason I don't know, but I had my husband drive me to the hospital where they treated me like I was a joke. Now at the time I was a known drug addict, in and out of the hospital for being dehidraded and every thing, but right before this happened I decided to get clean. Well the first thing they said was "What Estelle did you do a bad bag." They drug tested me and of course since I was clean nothin g came up. They sent me home saying I was animic and that's why I felt like that I need ed to take more iron. I arued with them saying I wanted to stay I had been animic all my life and I never felt like that. I ended up going home. I went back in less then 4 hours latter because I felt much worse it's kind of a blur what happened after that I do appologize but from what family says and what I can piece together I had a spinal tape after they put me in ICU, and by then my whole body was shutting down, my mother said they sent men in full body suits to give me a breathing tube because they didnt know what I had. From there they helorcoped me to a better hospital and it wasnt until then they kn ew what I had. So I'd say 3 days. From what you said about your husband it does sound similar and my neurologist said it hit me like a ton of bricks. I would be more demanding maybe the hospital isnt a good one, tell them you want a spinal tap. I hope I was helpful, I m sorry if I went on. I hope your hubby gets better soon