Neuro Note #4

       For this Neuro Note, I chose to watch a YouTube video called Andrew’s Story: Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Throughout the YouTube video, we see pictures and videos of Andrew’s journey with GBS, from the moment he started showing symptoms all the way to his recovery. The film starts off by saying that Andrew was feeling sick and developed a high fever, experienced severe weakness, and he had a rash occur. Andrew went to the doctor and they diagnosed him with strep. They prescribed him medication and his rash went away but not the weakness. A couple of days after, he had numbness in his feet. Andrew was very active, so he assumed that his muscles were fatigued and went to the chiropractor. Only two days after the numbness in his feet occurred, he could no longer walk due to severe weakness and tightness of his muscles. Once again, Andrew went to the doctor but this time they did a spinal tap. The spinal tap revealed that Andrew had GBS. They immediately started IVIG and plasmapheresis. They also ran a central line to his heart and placed him into the ICU. He started experiencing even more symptoms, such as facial paralysis and blurred vision. They sent him home only 2 weeks of being in the hospital. Andrew was paralyzed from the waist down and only had shown signs of slight improvement. He was terrified, exhausted, and unable to sleep. When they knew that his condition was no longer improving, they checked him back into the hospital. He received a femoral catheter and plasmapheresis. Around this time, Andrew also started Physical Therapy. More symptoms developed, such as an inability to swallow. He received a NG tube and started a liquid only diet. Doctors were afraid that Andrew’s digestive system had shut down, so they gave him another medication that caused severe abdominal pain and burning. Andrew had accepted and agreed to be intubated and placed on life support. During the intubation, he went through cardiac arrest for a total of 7 minutes. It took three shocks to regain his normal heart rhythm. Andrew was paralyzed for three weeks from the neck down, he was getting frustrated. He was fully aware of everything but felt that he was trapped in his own body since he could not speak or move. He received a trach, peg tube, and was placed on a ventilator. Soon later, he was transferred to Atlanta to the Shepherd Center. Here he went through more therapy, which included yoga, horseback riding, and outdoor therapy. Andrew was determined to recover, and he did!

             I chose this video because I had never seen a case of GBS before and really had not even heard of it up until I started my neuro courses. GBS needs more awareness. I gathered this resource from the list of references. I wanted to see Andrew’s journey, specifically because he was very active, and it must have been very challenging for him to go through his body attacking itself. 

           To further my learning, I watched for symptoms that I took notes on in class and found in my diagnostic snapshot. I noticed right away that the numbness in his feet could possibly be an indicator of GBS, since it starts in the LE. Andrew’s GBS also followed some sort of illness, which was his high fever (that they thought was strep). His symptoms continuously worsened, and I would not say he was in the plateau phase until he transferred hospitals the first time. He did experience trouble with respiration, talking, and swallowing due to his paralysis. However, I thought it was neat that his family was still exploring options to communicate with him (dry erase board). Andrew received a spinal tap for them to get the diagnosis of GBS. He immediately started plasmapheresis, which we learned about in class. Throughout the film, I loved that we got to see Andrew go through all the phases: Acute, Plateau, and Recovery. At one point, we almost lost Andrew but we saw him push through. As we know, Andrew made nearly a full recovery. He is now able to do the things he loves with his family. I saw how important family was throughout his journey and he always had someone to watch him. I enhanced my learning by also thinking about what activities and things I would do with Andrew as his therapist. For example, Andrew was very exhausted due to the rebuilding of his muscles. I immediately thought of the 4 P’s for energy conservation and how perfect it would be to teach Andrew about them. I enjoyed watching this video and applying my knowledge to Andrew’s journey.  

The video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWvrHhs2jps