My husband Billy & I lived in Woodbury TN which is about 50 miles southeast of Nashville TN. My husband was a roofer for 30 plus years, we have 4 children Rachel, Jonathan, Hunter, Aleyiah, & 1 daughter-in-law Carla & 1 son-in-law Kevin, we are expecting our very 1st grand baby on August 17th, 2018. Billy wanted to be called Pop's & he wanted a boy, he was super excited about becoming Pop's.
Billy was a hard working man who always saw the best in everyone, he was a very trusting person & a person who was always there when someone needed help no matter what time of the day or night it was. Billy was a person who loved being outdoors, loved fishing & spending his free time with his family & friends..
I am sharing my husbands story with you because he is no longer here he gained his wings on January 29th, 2018 at the young age of 48 he had just had a birthday January 5th, he passed away due to due to GBS, Guillain Barre Syndrome..
This is how it all started & ended.
My husband Billy had a small spot come up on his right hand near his thumb it caused his hand to swell up & since he used a nail gun at work his finger wouldn't fit because of the swelling. So I took him to the er on January 8th, 2018, the er dr said Billy had Cellulitis in his hand he was given a tetanus shot and was given 20 Keflex antibiotic pills to take one pill twice a day for a total of 10 days & told to take 800mg of ibuprofen every 4 to 6 hours. Billy took the antibiotics & ibuprofen like he was suppose to, 5 days later on January 13th, 2018 my husband was complaining of feeling like he had the flu or a really bad cold & was hurting in his neck & shoulder on the right side, so I took him to the er in our hometown the er dr that was on call ordered a x-ray of Billy's neck & shoulder & drew some blood & did some blood cultures for lab work.
The er dr said Billy had degenerative disc disease in his neck & that Billy had a neck sprain. The er dr gave Billy a mild muscle relaxer & mild pain pill, released him to go home but told him to continue taking the antibiotics as well until they was finished. Billy still wasn't feeling any better the next few days he was still complaing of hurting really bad in his neck & shoulder area he said he felt like he had the flu but it was 20 times worse.
On January 17th, 2018, Billy said he still wasn't feeling good so he was going to make him some coffee he was always a coffee drinker, he went to get up off the couch & he said to me, "hun my legs don't work", I thought he was just joking like he wanted me to go make the coffee or something because we was always joking about different stuff. I walked over to Billy maybe 5 feet away & stuck my hand out Billy pulled his self up as soon as he stood up he just fell out in the floor his legs did not work at all. Billy told me he couldn't feel his legs, I call the ambulance they came got Billy took Billy back to the er in our hometown & a different er dr was on call he ordered a MRI, blood work & more blood cultures & x-rays on Billy & the er dr said I can't find anything at all wrong with you other than you have arthritis.
My husband was paralyzed & was urinating on his self because he had no control over his self from the waist down, the er dr still said that nothing was wrong with Billy other than he had arthritis. They released him put him in a wheel chair & put him in the car on the passenger side. So I called our oldest son & daughter-in-law & our oldest daughter & son-in-law & ask them to meet us at our house becasue we had to get Billy in the house he was paralyzed from the waist down & couldn't walk. Our 2 oldest children & their spouses met us at our house & got Billy out of the car & carried him in the house & put him on the couch where he stayed all that night & the next day until about 3 pm in pain until a different er dr came on duty & had his nurse call me to have the ambulance bring Billy back to the er for a direct admit because the blood cultures showed that Billy had infection in the blood.
I called the ambulance back again that was on Thursday January 18th, 2018 they came got Billy took him back to the hospital in our hometown of Woodbury, Tn where Billy stayed the night on January 18th 2018 then on the morning of January 19th, 2018 the dr came in Billy's room & told us Billy had Guillain-Barré syndrome so he was transferring him to Murfreesboro, Tn. we get to Murfreesboro & they do over 2 hours of testing on Billy & say that he has a Cervical spinal abscess so they are sending him to St. Thomas West in Nashville, Tn, where he will have surgury to remove the Cervical spinal abscess.
We were at 3 different hospitals all on Friday the 19th of January. Our oldest daughter & I get to St. Thomas West in Nashville at around 10 pm or so that night. They tranfered Billy by ambulance when we get there they have Billy in ICU they said they would be doing surgery the next morning.
On Saturday morning the 20th of January they put Billy on life support & did his surgery about a hour later. They went in & removed the C 4,5,6,& 7 of Billy's neck spine & put a metal plate in. Billy remained on life support until Wednesday the 24th 2018 they took Billy off at 8:28 am & by 10 am they was putting Billy back on life support because he wasn't able to breath on his on due to being paralyzed & by this time he was already paralyzed up to his chest. They wanted to put a filter in to help stop blood clots but becasue Billy's temp wouldn't stay down for a 24 hour period they was unable to put the filter in.
Billy's organs start shutting down & by this time was already paralyzed up to his neck, Billy kept a fever a lot & they was unable to do some things they needed to do because of him having a fever. On Friday the 26th of January 2018, the main dr comes in & tells me that there isn't anything else they can for for Billy since he paralyzed from his neck down & his organs are shutting down once he is off life support he won't last long because he isn't able to breath on his own due to being paralyzed. The main dr said that the infection wrapped around Billy's spinal cord in the C 4, 5, 6, & 7 & went down & that's what caused Billy to be paralyzed if it had went up he would have been brain dead. The dr said since Billy had a sister that lived out of state he would wait & take Billy off of life support on Monday that way it would give his sister time to get there to see Billy since Billy was a DNR.
That week-end Billy was really sick at his stomach a lot, high fever & in pain in his head & neck from the surgery. On Saturday January 27th, 2018 they started Billy on a feeding tube. On Monday January 29th 2018 they took Billy off of life support & he past away 28 minutes later.
Billy turned 48 years old on January 5th, 2018 and was diagnosis on January 19th, 2018 with GBS Guillain Barre Syndrome, Billy had a feeding tube. Billy was on the following medicines VANCOmycin 1250mg, norepinephrine 3.2 mcg/min, fentanyl 250 mcg/h, propofol 37.04 mcg/kg/min, Alprazolam, & for his fever they rotated tylenol & ibuprofen plus ice packs.
Everything started on January 8th, 2018 & 21 days later Billy passed away.. From my understanding the Cellulitis or possibly the tetanus shot caused Billy to get GBS.
My facebook page is Wanda Mayo & Billy's facebook page is Remembering Billy Mayo.
Our daughter-in-law & son are expecting a boy we found out 2 weeks after Billy passed away what they was having, so I know Billy is looking down on us smiling.
