Guillain Barre Syndrome

So, my horse hurt her foot the other night. Chipped her foot smooth to the quick. She is not limping though. My farrier came out this morning to evaluate it, and ended up just trimming around it....as that is all he could do. Making small talk he asked me what I went to school for (my whining about being in school for 3 years took over AGAIN!!) and then he blew my mind. My answer is always "respiratory". Then he piped in with "like a therapist?"!!! This was amazing. He know what a respiratory therapist was. He proceeded to tell me that they had him "on all that stuff for a long time". I was confused at that statement....and being slightly polite asked him if he was referring to breathing treatments or ventilators. He said, "no, a ventilator and a trach". It was so awesome to converse with someone about my favorite subject. Turns out he had Guillain Barre. He was telling me stories about his hospital stay. He remembers pretty much everything that went on. He remembers the good nurses and therapists and the bad nurses and therapists. I got to hear first hand what his suctioning experiences were like to him. He told me that there were many times he was frustrated and wanted to take the trach out because he thought he could manage on his own. He got one doctor to agree to take him off the vent and he quickly learned that he was not back to normal! He even told me about going home with his trach, and how he had some scares there. It was quite fascinating. I could have talked to him for hours but he had other horses to tend to after mine. Of course at the beginning of the conversation I had to sneak-a-peak at his neck for evidence and he has the battle scar. Prior to him speaking of his GBS I did not notice it, that should be a little booster for the self -consciousness if there is any. I asked him what it felt like prior to being diagnosed with Guillain Barre, and he said that his hair kind of started falling out in patches. A little patch here, and a little patch there. Then, his legs got to feeling a little wierd. But, he didn't think anything of it....he was under tons of stress and thought that was the reason. Then his jaw began hurting him, and his throat got a little sore. He found himself unable to swallow his spit so he was spitting it out. He figured it was just a sore throat. His family member drove him to a local hospital and that same night he went into respiratory failure. This local hospital could not figure out what was wrong with him so they shipped him off to the medical center. There they knew immediately. They explained everything to him and he understood what was going on. He was completely unable to communicate because he could not even move his facial muscles, but expressed his appreciation for those caregivers that introduced themselves and explained things to him prior to doing anything. It was a long road for him, but he did recover fully. Needless to say, he has slowed his life pace. He feels that it was stress that impacted his immune system opening the doors to Guillain Barre. Whatever it was, he is here today telling his story and fixing horse feet....another testament proving that miracles do exist.





And, like a nerd....I had to revert back to my student mindset remembering the book we had to read over Christmas break during my first year of respiratory school: Bed Number Ten. Thanks Diane, I met somone that probably appreciates that.