Gary Howard’s Guillan-Barre Story
My story begins with my daughter, who was born to my wife and I in April of 2007 in Pocatello, Idaho. Five weeks after her birth, she became very fussy and cried all night long. The next day she was very lethargic and seemed very despondent; so we rushed her to see her pediatrician. My daughter’s oxygen level was at 80 percent and then she had multiple seizures.
Immediately her pediatrician opened up the NICU and put her in an induced coma to regulate the seizures. After a day they were not able to stop the seizures so she was life-lighted to Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City where we spent two weeks in the children’s ICU. She became better and no diagnosis was ever made.
After that incident I changed our insurance policy to a $1000 deductible because at the time we only had emergency insurance due to my wife’s pregnancy being a pre-existing condition moving from one state to another. Folks in our church thought we would never use that health insurance but I am thankful I had it.
In July of 2007, at the age of 32, I became ill with a “cold” which led to a sinus infection. The sinus infection was severe and I had intestinal issues which (this is gross, sorry) led to having green bowel movements. I finally went to go to see a doctor and he prescribed a “very strong” antibiotic (I wish I could remember what it was). The next weekend I was preaching at church and was sweating very bad and my feet felt weird.
The next morning I was playing with my daughter on the living room floor and could not get up; we looked in the phone book for a doctor alphabetically and made an appointment. The doctor knew right away I had GBS just by the way I was walking and wrote up a list of tests and I then was admitted to the hospital. At first I was refusing to be admitted because of my daughter’s hospitalization, but I really had no choice.
Within a couple days I went from using a walker to just go use the restroom to not being able to walk at all. I soon became paralyzed from the neck down and had bell palsy (I could not smile as you see in the picture). The paralysis affected my speech (which frightened me as a preacher) and my swallowing as well. After two weeks in the hospital I went to the therapy portion of the hospital where I spent another two weeks. Since I was not making any progress, my health insurance had me admitted to a skilled nursing home which was fortunately on the same campus as the hospital.
I spent one month in the nursing home undergoing physical, occupational, and speech therapy. My speech therapist had me go and preach one day to the residents of the nursing home as therapy for my speech. My speech was so bad at the time that people had to put their ear up to my lips at times to hear me speak. Well that day my speech came back miraculously and when she asked the physical therapist how that happened he said: “that was the Holy Spirit”. I then started making slow progress through therapy and hard work.
I then spent two weeks back in the therapy section of the hospital where I underwent stringent therapy and was walking with a walker, but mostly using a wheelchair which I could now wheel myself. In late November of 2007 I finally went home after nearly three months away from home. I was able to walk into my home with a walker.
Reflecting back I am beyond thankfulness for my dad who stayed in the hospital with me for about a month and a half and went beyond familial duties as he cared for me physically and emotionally. Our small community in Idaho rallied behind us with the medical bills that remained, with their support we were able to manage all the bills and we even had many bills written off including my daughter’s medical bills.
In April of 2008 I ran a 5K and got third place in my age division. That summer I hiked the highest mountain in Idaho in a day. Today I live with residual nerve damage in my feet and fight fatigue, but I’m able to exercise daily, rockhound, practice karate (brown belt), work as a full-time pastor, I earned my doctorate, and most important I can serve my family.
In the Spring of 2017 my GBS residuals seemed to have gotten worse and I had a neurological attack in my right foot this March. The neurologist had no answers but said “it is what it is and can’t do anything about it”. I’ve been given the same advice that there may not be any answers to worsening residuals. The only hopeful answer is a possible self-diagnosis of “post-GBS” which is supposedly like “post-Polio” and shows up 10+ years down the road. Regardless I rest in what the Apostle Paul wrote: “when I am weak You (God) are strong”. My condition helps me to work towards humility and dependent on God’s strength for the tasks ahead of me.
Immediately her pediatrician opened up the NICU and put her in an induced coma to regulate the seizures. After a day they were not able to stop the seizures so she was life-lighted to Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City where we spent two weeks in the children’s ICU. She became better and no diagnosis was ever made.
After that incident I changed our insurance policy to a $1000 deductible because at the time we only had emergency insurance due to my wife’s pregnancy being a pre-existing condition moving from one state to another. Folks in our church thought we would never use that health insurance but I am thankful I had it.
In July of 2007, at the age of 32, I became ill with a “cold” which led to a sinus infection. The sinus infection was severe and I had intestinal issues which (this is gross, sorry) led to having green bowel movements. I finally went to go to see a doctor and he prescribed a “very strong” antibiotic (I wish I could remember what it was). The next weekend I was preaching at church and was sweating very bad and my feet felt weird.
The next morning I was playing with my daughter on the living room floor and could not get up; we looked in the phone book for a doctor alphabetically and made an appointment. The doctor knew right away I had GBS just by the way I was walking and wrote up a list of tests and I then was admitted to the hospital. At first I was refusing to be admitted because of my daughter’s hospitalization, but I really had no choice.
Within a couple days I went from using a walker to just go use the restroom to not being able to walk at all. I soon became paralyzed from the neck down and had bell palsy (I could not smile as you see in the picture). The paralysis affected my speech (which frightened me as a preacher) and my swallowing as well. After two weeks in the hospital I went to the therapy portion of the hospital where I spent another two weeks. Since I was not making any progress, my health insurance had me admitted to a skilled nursing home which was fortunately on the same campus as the hospital.
I spent one month in the nursing home undergoing physical, occupational, and speech therapy. My speech therapist had me go and preach one day to the residents of the nursing home as therapy for my speech. My speech was so bad at the time that people had to put their ear up to my lips at times to hear me speak. Well that day my speech came back miraculously and when she asked the physical therapist how that happened he said: “that was the Holy Spirit”. I then started making slow progress through therapy and hard work.
I then spent two weeks back in the therapy section of the hospital where I underwent stringent therapy and was walking with a walker, but mostly using a wheelchair which I could now wheel myself. In late November of 2007 I finally went home after nearly three months away from home. I was able to walk into my home with a walker.
Reflecting back I am beyond thankfulness for my dad who stayed in the hospital with me for about a month and a half and went beyond familial duties as he cared for me physically and emotionally. Our small community in Idaho rallied behind us with the medical bills that remained, with their support we were able to manage all the bills and we even had many bills written off including my daughter’s medical bills.
In April of 2008 I ran a 5K and got third place in my age division. That summer I hiked the highest mountain in Idaho in a day. Today I live with residual nerve damage in my feet and fight fatigue, but I’m able to exercise daily, rockhound, practice karate (brown belt), work as a full-time pastor, I earned my doctorate, and most important I can serve my family.
In the Spring of 2017 my GBS residuals seemed to have gotten worse and I had a neurological attack in my right foot this March. The neurologist had no answers but said “it is what it is and can’t do anything about it”. I’ve been given the same advice that there may not be any answers to worsening residuals. The only hopeful answer is a possible self-diagnosis of “post-GBS” which is supposedly like “post-Polio” and shows up 10+ years down the road. Regardless I rest in what the Apostle Paul wrote: “when I am weak You (God) are strong”. My condition helps me to work towards humility and dependent on God’s strength for the tasks ahead of me.
