Can do...

Over the past several months with slow, but mostly steady progress in my physical activities, I will periodically list the things I can do. Sometimes for perspective I list the can't do stuff, but only for the record, since I hope to be able to do them soon. Often something makes it on the can do list just because it wasn't on there last time!

Currently I can:

• walk for 20-30 minutes (yep, this means more than once around the block!)
• stay awake while reading
• go up and down the stairs if I forget something (instead of sending one of the kids after it--though I still do that sometimes anyway!)
• carry the laundry basket (instead of dragging it)
• cook real dinner without just directing the action from a stool in the kitchen
• make bread (thanks to a powerful KitchenAid--but still, it wasn't on the list last time)
• do light duty work (at the hospital) without feeling like a wrung out washcloth at the end of 4 hours
• smile when I lose my balance or catch someone looking at my gait with a puzzled look on their face

The reasons to make such a list are to mark progress, laugh a bit at the irony of the items listed, and to keep things positive, upbeat, light and can do. FYI, my can't do list includes running, working on a Master's degree, puttering till late into the night, and starting IV's, but those things can wait while I listen to my kids talk while we walk, while they read, while I bake cookies, blog, and while I rest and heal.

A beginning...

You have a diagnosis. There is a lot you don’t know. Basically, you know how you feel and nothing you read sounds exactly like your case. Not to fear. You will face this illness and slow recovery with courage, balance and, of necessity, patience.

This blog will be here for a little bit of information, a lot of hope and uplifting messages, from one who has had a taste of what you might be going through. I am currently 6 months into Miller-Fisher variant of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. In my searching for information about this uncommon syndrome, I found some facts, but not much else online. There is a mountain to climb...let us begin.

photo from http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/jan/02/top10.cycling