MISSOULA — Imagine you are living your life when one of your legs starts to go numb.
“By the time I got here my left leg was completely paralyzed and I couldn’t feel a thing. You could have stuck a steak knife in my leg all the way down,” Samantha Honold said.
It happened to Honold, who spent more than a month at Community Medical Center's rehab center when her body experienced rapid onset muscle weakness.
“By the time I got to Community — when they realized what was going on with me — it had come up to about here,” Honold recalled, gesturing to her mid-torso.
Doctors diagnosed Honold with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder that affects the nerves.
There are fewer than 20,000 people diagnosed with it in the U.S. every year.
Honold and her doctors believe it was triggered by COVID-19.
There is no cure, but people can often get their mobility back with a lot of hard work.
"It is exhausting, but in the best way possible,” Honold said.
“For all neuro patients, the more motivated the patient is, the more they want to participate in therapy, the better outcomes they’re going to have,” explained Physical Therapist Jennifer Allred.
“It's really, really challenging sometimes to stay in a positive mindset about it all, but it’s the only way to be if I want to go home. And I want to go home,” Honold told MTN.
And this week she did — with the help of her physical therapist and care team and mentoring by others who also have battled Guillain Barre syndrome.
