Sunday, April 13, 2014

Curved ball

I'm sitting here in bed two weeks after I wrote my last blog. In that short space of time, a lot has happened.

I'd already noticed that I had a numbness in my feet and hands even before the boys went away, which got progressively worse as the week wore on. I also noticed that I seemed to be walking peculiarly and every bone in my body ached, which frankly is no longer that unusual. 

The only thing that seemed to help the pain was to lie in a very hot bath, and so I spent 7 nights sleeping in the bath as I struggled to keep going with the bakery. By Thursday I had to concede that something was very wrong  and 'Googled' all my symptoms. I could immediately see that whatever I had was neurological, which in itself is pretty scary. By this stage the pain was phosphorescent and the numbness had become all encompassing and I was struggling to walk or lift my arms. Poor William the 8 year old, who was fortunately on holiday, was helping me up and down the stairs and doing all the cooking and Cessie the Wonder Woman was keeping me and the house going.

William and I snuggled up on the sofa and watched more television in those 3 days whilst we waited for the boys to come back, than we've done in the past 3 years. Thank goodness for our BBC iPlayer. I do think it kept me this side of sane, as my body burned up, turned to jelly and stopped moving. 

Long story short, after various trips to St Thomas, spinal taps and pints of blood removed - I've been diagnosed with Guillain - Barre Syndrome (GBS) which is a fairly rare autoimmune disorder in which the body's immune system attacks the peripheral nervous system. It certainly ain't a picnic, but it's curable and I start IV immoglobulin treatment next week. I'm already through the worst of it and plateauing out now, but recovery is a long process (months) and I'm left pretty weak and unable to walk unassisted although I'm getting quite good with a stick already. 

It's obviously a set-back but also life changing in a positive way, as I've been ordered to have 100% rest. "What's that?' I asked myself and nearly had to 'Google' that too.

Thing is that now that the pain is being managed with some Schedule A opiates and we have some sense of where we are going with this, I intend to make the most of all this mandatory rest. There's a lot I can do from our beautiful home here in Carrot Bay and I will slowly start picking up on my bakery work as I begin to feel stronger and get a bit more movement back. 

What a thing, eh?










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