Geraldine talks to QEF supporters about her experience of recovery with Guillan-Barre Syndrome at our Care and Rehabilitation Centre.
Transcript:
I couldn’t read because the muscles in my my eyes were very bad at that time and I had one eye glued down and my mouth was gone sideways as well with the muscle. Luckily I had some friends, doctors and they kept saying what to do and I don’t know if you know anyone who’s had a stroke but all you have to do to get your mouth back is that and keep doing that. And seemingly in the night time when the doctor was doing his rounds, he said I was sound asleep and I was still doing this, trying to get my hands back, because I was determined I was going to feed myself. But I was totally dependent being washed, dressed, you know, everything. And so the carers, I like them carers. You don’t know what it’s like to be so vulnerable and dependent. It’s so difficult. And you’re going to have to go to this centre. I’m in a wheelchair and I said to all of them I’ll be coming out walking. I’m telling you now. Yeah. And so I concentrated like that. And I have to tell you, everybody was praying and I really felt that positivity coming towards me. When I’d be feeling anyway down then suddenly I’m up, I’m getting there and the doctors all told me you’re gonna you’re going to be okay Geraldine you’re just because you’ve got that determination, I said ‘And the prayer’.
Honestly, it was just incredible, the way the physios, when I got physio, I got physio every single day. And I’m going to show you before I left, made the lovely physios, got me standing for one minute, then two minutes. And I can’t tell you how that was so wonderful because that meant I could go to the toilet hanging on to a thing, right. So when I got there and I used to have to be hoisted into the wheelchair just before I left, and then I was able to get up on this thing and they could put me into the wheelchair with the help of my husband. And so when I got there, I’m still in the wheelchair, but I’m not being hoisted anymore, up in the air. And this was my first third day.
