Treatment Starts!

I had a busy day today. From 9 am until almost 2 pm I was in the EMG clinic having tests on my nerves and muscles. I’ll get a full report tomorrow but basically my body is attacking the myelin surrounding my nerves. That accounts for the pain and loss of function.

After I got back to the room about 2 pm a doctor came and explained where we are. They believe I have a variant of Guillon-Barre syndrome. However, they aren’t sure and the possibility of lymphoma still exists.

My medical team recommended we start treatment now since my condition continues to deteriorate. So today I began a series of 5 treatments to remove antibodies from my blood. This is called plasma pheresis.

This procedure lasts almost 2 hours and involves running all my blood through a process that removes antibodies and replaces them with albumin to keep the volume of blood the same. I’ll have a treatment every other day until I have 5.

Additional tests might include another spinal tap, a PET scan, and waiting for blood panels to come back. A chaplain came by and prayed for me today, which is what I would ask you to do also. We are confident in God’s grace and mercy, and your prayers sustain us during this time.