Is Guillain Barre Syndrome rare? I thought it was but I’m thinking not so much really now. I knew last week that there was a new patient coming up here with GBS to The Stan Cassidy Rehabilitation Centre this week. Did I ever think in a million years that I would know the person? Not all all. What are the chances in that? Guillain Barre Syndrome is rare, 1 in a 100,000 people get it every year. Now having an old friend having Guillain Barre Syndrome at the same time as me really, that’s more like 1 in a million. Yes! The new patient up here in Fredericton that has GBS is an old friend of mine and my brothers. I haven’t seen him in years until today!
This morning I went to physiotherapy worked out my arms on the Bowflex machine. After that I wheeled myself down to occupational therapy.
When I was outside waiting for my therapist when a guy says, hey Jamie. At first I was like hey there, just assuming this must be the guy that has GBS and one of the therapists or nurses told him about me. I had already given them permission to tell the person about me if they wanted to talk or ask questions. Then the guy says, do you remember me? I started looking at him more from the hallway as he was in the room and I was saying to myself he looks familiar. He then says Pinder? I’m like oh my god, how are you? What are the chances of this? So your the one with GBS? I said I knew someone was coming but didn’t think in a million years I would know them. We talked for a bit before I had to go to my next session.
I’m happy to hear that he’s doing well. He’s walking and his recovery is coming along pretty quick. When you can get treated in less then 12 hours versus waiting 3 days for me makes a huge difference. When allowed to progress the severity of your GBS will be worse causing more damage to your nerves. Guillain Barre Syndrome started for me on August 1, 2019 as was allowed to get worse before treatment started. He’s lucky and happy his doctors treated him right away. That has definitely improved his recovery time. I haven’t seen him in like 15 years probably. Not the way you want to reconnect with an old friend, but someone to talk to now. I’ll have to hear his full story the next time I see him this week. So how rare is GBS, not that rare I’d say!