It felt like I had no muscle left in my body

MY HEALTH EXPERIENCE:Guillain-Barré syndrome is very difficult to diagnose, writes JASON WALL

IN DECEMBER 2009, I started getting sick. I had the flu for three weeks, but it was worse than anything I ever had. In the third week, my legs and arms started to go weak and I ended up going to hospital. I went in on a Sunday.

They prescribed me Tamiflu because they thought I was at the end of a bout of swine flu. They mentioned Guillain-Barré syndrome too, but said it was hard to diagnose and there was a 70 per cent chance I didn’t have it.

At home I got weaker and everything was harder to do. Two days later, I had to make three attempts to get out of bed. The next day, December 14th, I phoned my housemate to get me out of bed. He had to lift me, it felt like I had no muscle left in my body. I could stand up straight, but if I bent my knees I collapsed.

My brother and housemate rushed me straight to hospital. They carried me in the door. I was in AE for a while and saw different doctors and neurologists. They were sure I had Guillain- Barré syndrome but it’s really hard to diagnose. The only way to know if you have it is to treat it and, if treatment works, then that’s what’s wrong.

What happens is your immune system starts eating your nerves. It starts in your fingers and toes and can go into your respiratory system. You could die if it reaches there.

I was taken in a wheelchair to the high-dependency unit on a high dose of immunoglobulin to try to stabilise me. The next day I wasn’t getting better but I wasn’t getting worse, so they said it was working.

They moved me to a normal ward for the next six days. There I moved from using the wheelchair to a zimmer frame. Towards the end of the stay, I saw a physio who gave me very basic exercises to get my strength back.

I’ve been competitively rowing since I was 14 and it’s important to me. This experience scared me, but the doctors assured me I’d make a fully recovery. During the illness, I lost 12kg, which is roughly two stone. At home that Christmas, I was on crutches and I looked so gaunt.

My energy levels were very low when I got out of hospital and remained low for a month or so. I worked on the physio programme, doing the basic things such as lifting my leg off the ground 10 times and doing press ups on my knees.

In January, I got back to Galway. After college each day I walked to the gym. I did the physio and my own training there. I had a brace on each ankle so I could walk because my muscles were too weak to hold me. Everything took so much longer. To get from my home to the gym and back normally took two hours, now it took four.

By the end of March, I was down to one crutch and decided to get myself back in the boats. The lads on the team couldn’t believe I was back training so soon. They were so supportive and that was a big help.

I went through good and bad stages getting back. Most days I saw an improvement, then other days it didn’t improve and it was good to have the lads around. Eventually, my energy got better.

I wanted to get back rowing. I asked my physio if I did all the strength work and worked hard would I be ready for the championship in July. She was supportive but said it was unrealistic to expect to be at the same level I was at by then.

I promised myself I would work hard until May and see how I was. If it didn’t work, I wouldn’t row for the season. To row competitively, you train seven days a week, sometimes doing nine sessions.

My first race back was for Cork at the regatta in May because they were down a man. We won and it was such a boost because I was so unsure if I would be good enough. After that race I decided I was going to keep training for the championships.

The team went to Henley Royal Regatta which was held in London in July. We lost the race, but were beaten by Harvard who ended up as overall winners in the end. They were much bigger and heavier than us anyway.

It was two weeks to the national championships and I was feeling good. There are 10 men on our squad and when I found out I was one of the eight who made the boat for the championships I couldn’t believe it.

It only hit me when I got home and I was delighted. But I was still nervous and wanted to make sure I deserved my place. I wasn’t at full strength, but I was determined.

When we crossed the finish line at the championships no one knew who won. We had to wait until they called it out. We beat Queens University by 0.13 of a second. The feeling was unbelievable. It was a huge sense of relief.

It gave me a lot of confidence in myself to come up through the ranks so quickly from the illness. The doctor says an attack is rare and only one to two people in 100,000 get it. A relapse is almost unheard of.

When I was at my weakest I couldn’t even open a bar of chocolate and now I’m a member of the team who won the Men’s Senior Eight Rowing Championship of Ireland. Two of the lads in my boat had been to the Olympics in Beijing. It just goes to show that anything is possible.

In conversation with ORLA TINSLEY