Illustration of Nerve Before and During GBS

This is a great illustration of what happens to the peripheral nerves with GBS. Some of the best information comes from support groups, this is no different, it is from a GBS support group based out of Tasmania.

Figure 1a and b. Myelinated motor nerve fibres in peripheral nerve.
(a) top. Normal myelinated fibre with nerve impulse being conducted from
node to node, causing muscle contraction.
(b) bottom. Autoimmune attack on myelin causes a block in nerve conduction,
preventing muscle contraction. Illustration for Modern Medicine by Chris Wikoff

Jen DeWolf

Pain and Guillain-Barre

For many people, including myself, the pain that is endured during the onset of GBS can be more difficult to deal with than the realization of becoming paralyzed. Speaking with other GBSers, there seems to be different stages and levels of pain one does or does not experience. For me, the pain was excruciating from the start and finding relief proved to be a frustrating and sleepless process. After being given countless medications to no effect, I was put on a Morphine drip. Thankfully, that did the trick because I honestly don't know how much more I could of taken. I feel that a big part of why it took so long to find a solution was because I couldn't accurately describe my pain. Looking back now, I wondered if there was anything online that may of helped to classify my pain level or category of pain I had. In my search, I came across neurology.org, listed was a classification of different levels and types of pain described on a medical scale.

This is the Neurology.org mission statement: "Neurology® will provide clinical neurologists with outstanding peer-reviewed articles, editorials and reviews to enhance patient care, education, clinical research and professionalism."

Here is the link on pain: neurology.org

Hopefully this will help others the way I feel it could of helped me!

J.D.