My Final Assessment

I had my neurological reassessment yesterday. Basically, 3 months after discharge, they do full check up to see how your recovery is progressing. It was 4 hours and I met with each of my original therapists from my inpatient stay at the Glenrose. It was kind of cool. I mean some of the people I really didn't need much follow up with, because I already didn't really need much from them on discharge. Other people it was a little different. I definitely have made a lot of progress since I left, and I think it's pretty obvious in most ways, but less obvious in some others.

There was a couple of things that really stuck with me. The first was that I asked the neurologist if there was anything I could do, not necessarily to increase the speed of my recovery, but to increase the odds of me reaching a full recovery. Some people with GBS fully recover, and some people don't, and scientifically, they don't have a lot of reason one way or the other. She basically told me no. But she did say that one of the most important things that I do was to keep working at it. She said a lot of times the people that don't fully recover are the people that stop trying because they reach a level of functionality, and everything past that is too difficult. I took that to heart. I've never been one to give up, but I do struggle with follow through, hence one of the reasons that I've really benefited from the I Ho Chuan.

Another thing that really stuck out to me was the talk that I had with my physio. He basically said no one can tell me whether or not I'm going to get full function back at this point. But he made a pretty funny reference to old kung fu movies. He said "you know how the old guy always beats up the young, fit, cocky, kung fu guy? That's not because he's stronger or fitter. It's because he's had the experience to know how to use his body to his advantage." He also said to me that I basically have an end goal, whatever it may be. There's lots of different paths I can take to get to that same place. Some of them might be more difficult, and I might have to be more a lot more resourceful.