I Have Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Help Me Help My Husband.

I was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that attacks the nerves and the muscles are also affected. It can cause full paralysis to some; however, I consider myself to still be fortunate enough that my case is not severe. The symptoms started to manifest on New Year's eve (31 December 2016) and it progressed as the days went by. It all started with feeling of weakness on my left leg. On New Year's day, I woke up with severe pain from my hips all the way down and I started to feel that my throat muscles were not contracting which has made it difficult for me to swallow. On 2nd January 2017, I couldn't stand up anymore from sitting position. On the 3rd, from my hips down to my feet became more intense so my husband already brought me to the emergency of Auckland City Hospital as advised by a Healthline nurse. The first impression of the doctor in ED was Guillain-Barré Syndrome which was indeed the case. I was admitted in the Neurology ward for eight days which made it impossible for my husband to work. My doctors and therapists already told me that full recovery is possible but for how long it will take is very unpredictable. If I am lucky enough, I can go back to my normal self within the next few days but there have been cases when recovery takes up to three long years. Apparently, GBS usually means Getting Better Slowly for the patients.

Before I had GBS, I was a full-time housewife and stay-at-home mom. I used to go to Playcentre with my 2 boys.

Until now, I am still unable to carry our baby and it is still not 100% safe for me to move around. I already fell down because of the sudden loss of strength on my feet and legs. I'm still unable to take a shower all by myself. Even combing my hair and clipping my fingernails are being done by my husband. My husband was able to make an arrangement with his employer to work from home but it is still very difficult for him to work full time since he's the one doing all the chores and looking after our boys plus me most of the time. He's been juggling all tasks in a day. He usually stays awake until around three in the morning to be able to work and would have to get up at around six in the morning everyday which is not good for him since his blood pressure has always been very high that he has been taking four maintenance tablets daily.

You can know more about our journey on my blog site: http://pinaymominnz.blogtown.co.nz/

It is going to be very helpful for us to become financially stable again once my husband can work full time. It will only be possible if we're able to find a very good and reliable childcare soon which is hard to do considering the waiting lists and expensive rates of the good ones.