My name is Anna Vincent. I’m from Menifee, CA, I’m 27 years old, and I was diagnosed with GBS on April 23, 1997 at the age of 7.
I’ve avoided talking about having GBS for YEARS. As a kid it was uncomfortable to talk about. I think mostly because it was confusing to me. I wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, I just knew I wasn’t the same and didn’t like feeling different from other kids. So to avoid answering people’s questions that I didn’t have answers to, and to avoid speaking about this topic that made me feel so different from the rest of the world, I decided I would shut down and ignore anything having to do with GBS. Until recently.
I’ve come to terms with the fact that I had it, it was uncomfortable, it was scary, it was confusing through the eyes of a child, but I’m still here (almost) 21 years later. I’m walking, talking, I can see with my eyes, I’m a mother to a smart, sassy and funny little 2 year old girl, I’m a wife, an active individual who loves dirtbikes, hiking, kick boxing and self-healing. I’m coming out of my shell 🐢 in hopes that my story can help at least ONE person.
With that being said, I’m going to try to give as much info as I can with what memories I have and the help of my mom, but please bear with my lack of detail, I don’t remember specifics from 7 years old ;)
This is me as a little girl sitting in my wheelchair. I wish I had some more photos with GBS but my mom didn't take many, it made me uncomfortable.
Two weeks prior to my diagnosis, I had the flu but didn’t entirely recuperate as expected. My body was starting to feel weaker by the day. Walking was beginning to feel more like exercise because it was getting harder to do... I often asked my mom or dad to carry me. Soon my legs began to feel numb and my feet tingled. My knees would give out when I’d walk and sometimes I’d fall down. My speech became slurred, my vision was becoming blurry, my muscles seemed like they suddenly stopped working altogether with no explaination. No one, including my doctor, knew what was happening to me.
It was about the 2nd or 3rd doctors visit when they realized I was progressively getting worse and none of the medications (I don’t recall which ones) were working. I remember hearing the words, “Anna needs to go to the emergency room right away!” come out of my doctors mouth. The next thing I knew my parents and I are being transported by ambulance to the nearby children’s hospital.
In the ER a doctor performed a series of tests on me. He had poked my foot with a pin and I didn’t react, I couldn’t even feel it! He also asked me to lift my arms from my sides and raise them above my head. But when I tried my arms shook uncontrollably and would only raise half way. I was asked to smile as big as I could so I did but my face was not displaying a smile. It wasn’t doing anything, really. I had lost all feeling and muscle from my face down. Eventually I was admitted to the hospital where I had an MRI, blood tests and a lumbar puncture, which would confirm that I had Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
I had IVIG treatments for 5 days which seemed to help tremendously. I did physical and occupational therapy 5 days a week and little by little my strength was coming back. I went from a wheelchair, to a walker, to leg splints and then my own two unassisted legs. I remember one of my first biggest accomplishments was standing back up by myself after a fall. Before I knew it, I was returning back to school, walking up the steps to my classroom all by myself. By 5th grade, I was on the school volleyball, basketball, and softball teams. It was the little steps that were HUGE milestones. I just wanted to be a “normal” kid again. I wanted to run, swim, ride my bike, and get to play with my friends again. It’s so easy to take walking for granted until you can’t anymore and at the age of 7 I learned to never take my own two legs for granted again. And I haven’t ❤️
This is a current picture of me, my husband and our daughter.
