Life-Changing Challengers
Dive into the heart of transformation with "Life-Changing Challengers," a podcast that inspires listeners to turn their challenges into opportunities for growth. Hosted by Brad Minus, a seasoned endurance coach with over 13 years of experience, this show brings you compelling stories of resilience, ambition, and personal triumph.
Brad and his guests share their journeys of overcoming obstacles through endurance sports, personal development, and pursuing passions. From completing Ironman triathlons to conquering personal and professional hurdles, "Life-Changing Challengers" is your guide to breaking barriers and achieving your dreams.
Whether you're looking to incinerate your limits, find inspiration to chase your big passion or enjoy motivational stories of people who've transformed their lives, this podcast is for you. Join us to explore how embracing challenges can lead to a happier, more fulfilled life.
Subscribe, review, and share to be part of a community dedicated to making every challenge a stepping stone to success. Follow "Life-Changing Challengers" to ignite your desire, push your boundaries, and embark on your journey to the extraordinary.
Life-Changing Challengers
Surviving Guillain-Barre: A Mother's Story of Struggle and Triumph with Holly Frances
When Holly Francis was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome just three weeks after the birth of her daughter, her life changed dramatically. In our latest episode, Holly, an author, speaker, and certified trainer, takes us through her harrowing journey from the small town of Drayton Valley, Alberta, to the ICU where she fought for her life. Holly recounts how she navigated the terrifying experience of rapid paralysis, the excruciating pain, and the emotional turmoil of being on life support while separated from her newborn daughter.
Listeners will gain invaluable insights into the immense challenges Holly faced during her recovery, including the critical role of dedicated medical staff and alternative pain management methods. Holly's resilience shines through as she candidly shares her experiences of weaning off the ventilator, regaining her independence, and reconnecting with her family. Her detailed account of the physical and emotional hurdles she overcame provides a powerful testament to human strength and determination.
Holly's story doesn't end with her personal recovery. She has become a beacon of hope and support for others affected by Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Holly discusses the impact of her book, "Life Support: Surviving Guillain-Barre Syndrome - A Mother's Story of Hope and Recovery," and her ongoing efforts to spread awareness through social media and the GBS CIDP Foundation. This episode is filled with raw emotions, hard-earned wisdom, and the transformative power of gratitude, offering inspiration and hope to anyone facing life's toughest challenges. Join us for an unforgettable conversation that will leave you uplifted and inspired.
Read Holly's Book - Life Support: Surviving Guillain-Barre Syndrome - A Mother's Story of Hope and Recovery
Contact Holly Frances
Instagram: @hollyaftergbs
Facebook: @hollyaftergbs
YouTube: @hollyaftergbs
HollyafterGBS.com
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Contact Brad @ Life Changing Challengers
Instagram: @bradaminus
Facebook: @bradaminus
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YouTube: @lifechangingchallengers
LifeChangingChallengers.com
And welcome back to another episode of Life Changing Challengers. This is going to be an epic episode, ladies and gentlemen. Today I have with me Holly Francis. She is an author and a speaker and a certified trainer, but her story is going to inspire you. It might, let's just put it this way it's going to be incredible. So how are you doing today, holly? Everything all right.
Holly:I'm doing really good. Yeah, I'm in Edmonton Canada. Here it's finally really really beautiful out and sunny and summer is on its way, so I'm feeling great today.
Brad:Oh, love Edmonton. I'm in Tampa, florida, so all the way down south of you, all the way across our country and yours, so, yeah, so Edmonton used to be the national the world championships for ITU triathlon, and that's what I do is I'm an endurance coach, coach, so you know what I mean. But you know that's the way that this has been brought out as ways of getting through adversity and trauma, and all that with uncommon ways. So that's how I've helped with a lot of my own clients, so that's how that came about. So, holly, this is the first question I give to everybody. Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood, where you grew up? What was a compliment of your family and what was the environment like?
Holly:Yeah, so I grew up in a small town called Drayton Valley. It's about an hour and a half from Edmonton, I think like less than 8,000 people there. It's a very small town.
Holly:My parents I come from a family of three kids. Youngest I was a baby, definitely a little spoiled at being the only girl in the family. Two older brothers my parents divorced, actually when I was about three years old. But I am blessed to have such amazing and supportive parents and they really instilled in us that we were still a family and we did a lot of activities still together and my family both parents were very involved. So, even though I come from a broken home, it didn't feel like that and I felt so supported and loved and I think because of that I grew up just with this attitude that I can do anything that I want because I had that support. So I attribute that to my parents and my childhood and having that positive upbringing to be able to always look at things very differently. Everything happens for a reason. That's how I see things and I think that has always helped me as I grew up and as I went through challenges as I got older.
Brad:So did you go? So what was high school like for you in Edmonton?
Holly:So I was in Drayton Valley still at the time. So Drayton Valley was it was a small town and I knew that a small town wasn't for me. I knew that I wanted to get out of there one day, but didn't really know what I wanted to do. High school was great. I had a lot of friends, I did a lot of activities and just kept really busy. I was very outgoing, very happy, very happy-go-lucky, just type of girl, but didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life.
Holly:I moved to Edmonton when I was 18 years old, met my then husband at the time and proceeded to just go through the motions of okay, next is we get married and next we have babies, and just kind of had my whole life planned. It was just like this, this thing that I had set up for my life, and I knew what I wanted and I just went after it. I got into a career working in human resources and, yeah, I was just really excited once I got married and then had my daughter and I just felt like my whole life was kind of ahead of me. I was just really excited.
Brad:All right. Well, I've seen it on your website and we're going to have that in the show notes, and I've seen what you've done and how you were before and, yeah, it looked like you were very happy growing up like that. So, ladies and gentlemen, we are just about to dive in. So you had a little girl and he was Casey, right? Yes, was it January of 2011?
Holly:Yep, so Casey was born on January 26th of 2011. Obviously, my first child. It was so exciting. I had a wonderful pregnancy and we were just so excited for her to be born. She was the first baby on both sides of the family or the first grandbaby, yeah, so it was just such an exciting time.
Holly:I was also kind of one of the first of my friend group to have a baby, so it was just all new and so exciting. And when I was growing up even though I came from a divorced family, I knew that I wanted a family so badly and I wanted kids and I wanted to be a mom. So when I had my daughter, it truly felt like everything was finally complete. It felt like I had everything that I'd wanted. My daughter was born, she was 100% healthy and I just felt so blessed and so happy. And I remember during those first few weeks being in awe of how perfect everything was going, and I remember almost feeling like guilty, like oh, this is how life is, is this how perfect life is? And I had no idea that just a few weeks later my life would drastically change forever.
Brad:So you came down with Guillain-Barre syndrome, correct, which is an autoimmune that actually attacks the nervous system. Correct, correct, all right. So, before we get into the thick of that, where did you start? What did you start feeling and how did you start Like? Where did the symptoms originate?
Holly:So I was at home, casey would have been three weeks old and I was still adjusting to life as a new mom and I was breastfeeding and no people were coming over because my house was a mess and I was like up all night and exhausted and loving every minute of it, but exhausted. I remember that day. I remember sitting on the couch and I had Casey in my arms and I felt like this kind of tingle in my fingertip. That was the very first symptom and at the time I obviously didn't realize that till months later. But looking back now I know that was my first symptom. So this was around actually noon and I remember thinking that's really weird, like I've got this weird tingle in my finger, and I thought maybe I had burned myself because it was kind of like numb. But I didn't recall burning myself on anything, so I just kind of ignored it and went about my day. About probably about four hours later I was walking up the stairs and I remember feeling really tired and drained and thinking like, oh, it's a little bit harder to lift my legs to get up these stairs today and that's kind of a weird feeling. But again I was thinking you know what? You haven't slept much. You're a brand new mom.
Holly:I did have a C-section with my daughter, so I was recovering from surgery, and so it was like, okay, no, this is fine, you'll be fine, you're just tired. So I just ignored it. I got this pain in my neck and this was within like an hour of the kind of weakness happening and the pain kind of started as pretty mild and then within minutes like I'm talking like 5, 10, 15 minutes it went from mild to severe. So I took some Advil and I'm like what the heck did I do? Did I pinch a nerve or something Like I just don't get what I did all of a sudden, like it just came on so suddenly. And of course, after like an hour the pain was still there, even though I had taken like two, three Advils was not helping at all. It just seemed to be getting worse. But I just tried to ignore it.
Holly:Eventually, you know, it was bedtime and I was like, hey, I'm going to put Casey to bed and I'm going to go to sleep. I'm going to try to get a good night's sleep, because I'm just not feeling well, like I'm just feeling kind of weak and tired. So I went to bed that night I tucked Casey in her little bassinet beside my bed and I lay down and I cannot sleep. There's no way I could sleep.
Holly:I'm in so much pain from my neck. So I'm online. Of course, this is like when Google first came out on our smartphones, right? And so I'm Googling things online. And I'm on WebMD, like do I have a pinched nerve? Why is my neck hurting so bad and why are my legs weak? And it says, yes, you have a pinched nerve. That's what it said. So I'm like okay, what can I do to alleviate this pain? So it's telling me all these stretches.
Holly:So I get out of bed and I'm doing all these different neck stretches and yoga poses. None of it is helping, to the point where I'm in tears and I'm literally crying and I'm thinking like I can't do this and I don't want to wake up my husband. He was sleeping. He had to be at work the next day, that was his first day back after being on paternity leave, and so I was trying not to wake him up and I was trying to just do my own thing and deal with it myself. But it got too unbearable and he woke up.
Holly:And then Casey actually woke up because she needed to nurse and I said I'll get her.
Holly:I'll get her and I stood up from the floor and when I stood up my legs actually gave out on me and I fell to the floor. That was the first sign of the paralysis starting to spread up my body and of course at the time I didn't know that I'm thinking wow, this is a pretty bad pinched nerve. I think I need to go to the hospital or see a doctor immediately. So I had my husband drop me off. I said you know, I don't want Casey coming in with me. I don't want you guys to wait with me. I'm sure I'll be fine. I'm sure that they're just going to give me some medicine and you can pick me up in a few hours. So he dropped me off and I kind of just barely so he dropped me off and I kind of just barely walked through the doors my legs were so weak by that point and I was able to see a doctor and I had no idea that that was actually the last time that I would step foot outside for over three months.
Brad:Wow, oh my God, I just, you know, I researched a little bit of Guillain-Barre and it didn't. I didn't get a progression, they didn't give me a timeline, but the fact that it was what? 12 hours from the time that you felt this little tingle, to the point where your legs are buckling and you're falling down in the hospital.
Holly:Yeah, and that was it. Yeah, it was wild, it came on very quickly and Guillain-Barre syndrome is very different for every person. It's a wild disorder and it does affect everyone very differently and some cases are mild. Some people they get paralysis only up to their waist or they'll only get it in their arms. Some people are in the hospital for a very long time. Some people are in the hospital for a day. Some people are there for a few weeks. So there's just kind of no progression that the doctors can really say. There's no way to predict how it's going to be. So, basically, what happened is I went in to see a doctor. I was very fortunate that the doctor that I saw recognized Well, to be honest, he actually didn't recognize. He said I don't know what this is, but it's something serious and I'm going to get a neurologist to come see you. So I was grateful that he said you know, I don't know what this is, but someone else will.
Holly:The second doctor that came to see me, the neurologist. He had seen a case of Guillain-Barre syndrome before, which made it very helpful for diagnosing me, obviously Because it's such a rare disease I mean it only affects about one to two out of every hundred thousand and doctors don't see it very often. So a lot of people get misdiagnosed. They get sent home because maybe it's not coming on as seriously or as quickly. In my case it was progressing so quickly that they were able to see it happening right in front of their eyes. They would test my strength, they would test my hand strength and my leg strength and they could literally see it getting worse and worse as like half hour hour went by. And he said you know, I think you have Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Holly:And I remember at the time going what, what is that? I don't know what that is. I've never heard of that. It's like that's. Is that a disease? Is it like like? Is it similar to cancer? Like? That was just where my first mind went to.
Holly:Then he told me you know, it's this rare autoimmune disorder and we don't know what's going to happen. It can be mild or severe, but we're going to need to monitor you and you're going to need to be admitted into the hospital. And I remember thinking I can't be admitted. I have a baby at home. I got to go back home, just give me the meds and I'm going to go home. And they were like no, this is very serious and we need you to be admitted and we'll see how things go. You need to call your family. You tell your husband to come here and you can bring your daughter here.
Holly:And I remember thinking this must be more serious than I think it is. But I still just kind of tried to brush it off and think I'm going to be okay, I'm going to be fine, I'm at the hospital, that's what you do at the hospital, I'm in the right place, they're going to get me better and then I'm going to go home. I remember asking how long am I going to be here? And they said we can't tell you that we don't know. Let's just see what happens. Unfortunately, the paralysis spread so quickly that within 72 hours of that very first tingle basically a day and a half of being at the hospital the paralysis spread all the way up my body, affected my legs, arms and up until it affected my breathing. So I was put on life support in ICU after 72 hours.
Brad:Wow, so you actually had paralysis of the airway? I did, yeah. But, you had to get ventilated. Because that's incredible, because I'm sure now that you've also probably lived through COVID, you know that was a big thing. Right A month later you might not come off and at this point at least we didn't have that scare. But wow, I mean, that's incredible, what I'm gonna let you tell us. But what was the actual feeling? What were you feeling through your body as this was going on? Was it nothing, or was it like just pure pain?
Holly:It was pure pain. So with Guillain-Barre syndrome it's affecting the nervous system. So GBS is basically it sees an attack on your body and that can be anything. It could be the flu, it could be a cold, it could be surgery, it could be childbirth, and so for my case, I had just given birth. Three weeks earlier I also had a C-section. Those are known triggers for GBS.
Holly:Gbs usually comes on two to four weeks after some sort of trigger, so that's kind of what they attribute it to be. And then from there what happens is, you know, normally, in a normal body, in a healthy body, your immune system attacks whatever that trigger is, bites it off, and then your body gets better. Right With GBS, it continues to attack and then it begins to attack the nervous system and what it does is causes weakness, tingling, pain and then paralysis, or potentially paralysis in my case. So it was like inflammation, basically, of every nerve in the body and it felt like my body was on fire. It felt like I had been run over by a vehicle, fallen off a building. It was unbearable. I was on extreme amounts of narcotics. I was so out of it but also very aware of my surroundings.
Holly:So, although I was heavily sedated. I was still awake and still knowing what was going on, still in excruciating pain. All of a sudden, you know I'm rushed to ICU. They're saying we're going to give you some treatment, we're going to put a breathing tube in your mouth. You're not going to be able to speak. I wake up and I have this tube down my mouth and I can't communicate. I can no longer move my body. I'm in ICU. My entire family, friends, family from out of town obviously is rushed to be by my side and at that point it was like this is it? I'm not getting out of here, I'm dying. That's what I had come to the conclusion. I'm on life support and this is kind of it And'm dying. That's what I had come to the conclusion.
Brad:I'm on life support and this is kind of it, and everyone is just here to say goodbye, oh my God. So you had mentioned that you were in an immense amount of pain and I can imagine. I mean, you're actually. You're talking about a virus that's literally attacking the nervous system, so every single nerve ending is on fire and it's firing. Did the narcotics did? Did they help at all? Do you think they dulled it a little bit? What did it? What did it feel like when you started to, when I'm sure I'm picturing this in my head, but I'm thinking that you, you you'd have a nurse that come in and they'd push them more, because obviously you know, here would they give us this little button and you ask more if you, whenever you want, but you don't have any control, so they got to do it for you.
Holly:Yeah, so we I mean, I went through so much pain for so long I had to actually have a pain specialist come in, somebody. I didn't even know that existed. But yeah, there is a person called a pain specialist that specializes in trying to help your pain. So I'm, yeah, I mean in ICU and I'm I had a nurse by my side almost all the time I here in Canada you know ICU it's I very, very, very fortunate to have the care that I did and the nurse was was amazing. So I had a 12 hour nurse at a time and they basically very rarely left my side. So we had pain meds, you know, on a regular rotation, and then I was allowed a top up of a kind of an additional dilaudid, it was called and I was allowed that every hour Wow, every hour.
Holly:And it did help for about five minutes.
Brad:Oh no. So that was that's where I was trying to get to. I wanted I want people to understand that you're in the most immense pain possible and I wanted to hear you say that, ok, when they press the button and they got the top up, it was like you got a little bit of relief.
Holly:I got it lasted five minutes, five minutes, and I would, I remember I would look up at the clock on the wall. It was like this you know the school, the clocks that you'd have they have at school, exact same right Reminded me of my childhood. And looking at the clock when you're little at that, when school's out, and I would look at the clock and I would say, oh, I have 55 minutes until I can get another dose and I would just count down five minutes until I can get another toast and I would just count down Wow, Wow, I mean that's, that is nuts, so okay.
Brad:So I come from a little bit of a healthcare field. I was an EMT at one point and I still work in healthcare, but I'm on the tech side Cause at this point I would be thinking epidural, you know, just shut it down. But did? Did they try that? No, that was not something that was amicable with your diagnosis. Okay, that's cool. That's the first thing that came to my mind.
Holly:Yeah, we did something subcutaneous is what they eventually did so where I got medication through kind of the fatty parts of my stomach and that was able to help.
Brad:So that would kind of yeah, that would, that would kind of de-stimulate the nerve endings and at least give you a little bit of oh wow. So during this time you're I'm I'm assuming you're you're getting family, regular family, coming in. What was going on with your mom and your dad at this point?
Holly:So they're there and they are talking to the doctors and they're learning everything they can about GBS and this disease that none of us have ever heard of before. I'm 26 years old, so I mean, I'm young and I had my whole life ahead of me, and so this was just so sudden and so unexpected. But the doctors were telling my family that you know, guillain-barre syndrome can be very severe, but the good news is is that almost everybody gets out of ICU eventually and recovers and gets back to their life. It's just going to take some time and you just have to be patient and you just have to hold on to hope and you just have to keep fighting. And so they did, and they held on to that hope and they were very positive and upbeat and said you know you're going to get through this, because that's what the doctors were telling us.
Holly:Me, on the other hand, I mean, I'm in ICU, I'm on a breathing tube, I'm not seeing any signs of improvement for days and days and then weeks and weeks. So for me it was very challenging to believe that you know I am going to get out of there. Sometimes I thought they were lying to me, that they were just, you know, maybe just trying to keep me alive because they weren't ready to let me go. I just felt like they weren't telling me the truth. I thought I was going to die at any minute. The breathing tube was. Picture yourself underwater when you're just about to run out of air. That feeling, that's what it was like at all times of the day. So I was so afraid to, because I could still move my head. My head was the one thing that I could move. But I was afraid to move my head because I was afraid that if I even moved, it would just cause the breathing tube to move and then it would kind of vibrate in my throat and I could feel it and it would cause severe anxiety.
Holly:And then, of course, my daughter. She's there every day with me. I was so grateful that they said you know, it's very important that she be here with you, and they would put her on my chest and they would have her in a bassinet right beside me, which was amazing. It was so awesome that I could have her there, but at the same time it was so devastating because it was this reminder of you know, this is what I have and this is what I had at home. And now here I am and I had wanted to be a mom my whole life.
Holly:And then here I am and my daughter's three weeks old, and now I'm dying is what I felt like, and I felt so robbed of my future. I felt so just heartbroken that, you know, everything that I wanted was just taken away from me and there was no future, there was no hope, there was no reason to keep fighting, and so for a very long time I just laid there, you know, with no hope in my eyes, and I remember my family just tried to do everything they could to try and cheer me up. And it's so hard when you're dealing with pain. And I was also very ill from all the medication I was on, so I was vomiting up to like 20, 30 times a day. So it was just. It was pure hell in ICU and I had no idea how I was going to get through it.
Brad:So I am. I'm going to assume the best part of your day in those days which you know, obviously there wasn't a lot of them was when your husband or your parents would bring Casey in.
Holly:Yes.
Brad:Is it. Would that be fair to say?
Holly:Yes, absolutely. And I remember like I was just so proud of her yes, would that be fair to say? Hear all the nurses going oh, casey's here, oh my gosh, she's so cute. And I remember just being so proud and being like, yep, that's my little girl. She was just an angel. She truly was.
Holly:It was like she knew that she needed to be on her best behavior. She was just amazing from day one. She slept really well and she never cried and my family would just do all these little fun things to try to get her to smile, to get her to laugh, and she just was kind of this light in a very, very dark period of time. But there was also a lot of pain there too. You know they would put her on my bed and they would say you know, you need to cuddle with Casey. Of course I couldn't cuddle her back. She would reach out, she would try to wrap her finger around mine and I couldn't feel it and I couldn't reach out to her, and so it was also very, very depressing and kind of heartbreaking. You know to go. You know I'm her mom and I can't do anything. I can't hold her, I can't feed her, I can't be the mom that she deserves. And a lot of times I would say, you know, I don't want her on my bed because I want her to be held by somebody else who can actually take care of her.
Holly:So it was a very, very depressing time, very dark time, but thankfully I was able to get in touch. Well, not myself, but the nurses, you know. They saw me at my at my worst. They saw me losing hope. They kept telling me you're going to get better, you're going to get better, and I just would shake my head and go no, I'm not, I'm not getting better. And so they reached out to a previous GBS survivor that they had actually cared for a few years before and, crazy enough, he was actually in the same ICU room, that I was in the exact same one. Oh wow. And so they had cared for him and he had recovered. So they said you know this woman, holly, she's in ICU, she could really use some motivation.
Holly:So he walked into the hospital room and he brought his family with him as well, and he had three young daughters. They were all, I think, under the age of four when he was diagnosed. And he walked right up to my bed and said you know, I have been where you've been and I am here now and I recovered and I made it back to my family and you're going to too and that was a huge, huge turning point for me. That was like, okay, there is someone else out here out there that's been through what I have been through and they got out of it. He was a very young dad. He got back to his daughters Maybe I can too, just maybe and so that was just like this glimmer of hope that you know okay, maybe I can too, just maybe, and so that was just like this glimmer of hope that you know, okay, maybe I can do this.
Brad:Awesome. So that was the, that was the start, that was your turning point. Before we make that turn and we round that corner, can you give us and we know a lot of it, is you just literally being there in pain? Can you give us like literally being there in pain? Can you give us like a typical day of those first few of those, of that you know the?
Holly:first few weeks, first couple months, for sure, it was a groundhog day. Every day was the same. So I would wake up and I remember immediately waking up you. You know, instant anxiety. Oh, I'm still here. I remember I would dream about living my normal life at home, and then I would wake up and I'd be like, nope, I'm living a nightmare. So it was instant, instant pain, instant anxiety.
Holly:I would always ask my mom oh yeah, by the way, also at this point, you know, I was on a ventilator with a breathing tube. After about 10 days they said you know, this needs to come out, we need to give you a trach. So they put a hole in my throat and I was given a tracheotomy. So from here I was able to mouth words and we had a communication board. Basically it was like this eight by 10 piece of paper. Everyone just wrote down letters and eventually they wrote down words that I would commonly use and they would point to them, and then I would either blink my eyes or nod my head, depending on how much energy I had, and so I would mouth things, and that's how I communicated with my family, and the first thing I would always ask is who's my nurse and the reason I would ask that is because so many of the nurses you know it's ICU, they're dealing with a lot of very traumatic experiences. A lot of you know there was a lot of car accidents, there was a lot of very severe elderly people, a lot of people that were sedated or in comas With Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Holly:You know, people are awake and aware, and there for a long time and they didn't necessarily know how to care for me. They didn't know how to handle the pain. They didn't know, they didn't realize that I was. I literally felt like I was on fire. I was so hot that I couldn't have blankets on me, that I couldn't have blankets on me. The blankets basically felt like they were suffocating me. They made me feel too hot, they made me in pain, they made me itchy, just everything. So I would basically be there just laying there. I would have 15 different cold cloths all over parts of my body because I just felt like I was on fire and that was the inflammation in my nerves.
Holly:And then I'm nauseous and I'm dealing with a lot of pain and just asking you know, I want a nurse that has dealt with me before, because whenever I had a nurse that had been in my room before. You know, they were a lot more understanding, a little bit more comforting, and so that was always my first question whenever I woke up who's my nurse? And you know, some of them were absolutely incredible, even if they didn't have experience with GBS. You know, some people are just destined to be nurses and they're just incredible at what they do. And they would, you know, hold my hand and they would get me my pain meds, and they would. They would try to lift my spirit Some days. They would do my makeup and they would like try to brush out my hair, and they would just do all these little things, and so we would try to just pass the time, and that's so hard when you're in ICU and you can't do anything. So, you know, my mom tried to get us into a routine. She would brush my teeth every morning, she would wash my face. I would get a sponge bath from the nurses, which is basically like a cloth that they would just wipe me down. That was my highlight of the day, because it actually cooled me down and made me feel a little bit better.
Holly:I would get my you know, my narcotic injection, and it would help in that moment. So I would kind of feel all right bit better. I would get my you know my narcotic injection and it would help in that moment. So I would. I would kind of feel all right for for, like I said, like an hour and then from there, usually after all my meds, I would get like 15, 20 different pills that would be basically chopped up into a liquid format and then squeezed into a feeding tube in my stomach. So that's how I fed and it made me extremely, extremely nauseous. So from there that's usually when I would get sick they would actually lift me out of bed once a day.
Holly:That didn't happen until probably three weeks in or a month, almost a month in, I think. But you know, when you're lying down your heart is resting on your lungs and so it's putting pressure. So my lung was actually collapsing. So they said you know, she's got to get out of bed. So they had had this hoist that would lift my body up into the air and move me over into this big lazy boy chair and it was the most excruciating painful thing, just having everything touch me and move me and I would be hyperventilating. And they got me on Ativan and I would get in the chair and I would be like, okay, I just want to get out of this room, I just want to go do something else.
Holly:So they would actually take me through the hospital halls. Sometimes they would take me outside. I would sit outside and I would spend 10 minutes outside and I would go yeah, no, I don't want to be here, I just want to go back to my room. Because I'd be in so much pain, I'd be in so much discomfort on my back, there'd be people walking in and out of the hospital. They would do a double take of me. I literally looked like I was dying and I often had my newborn baby on my lap, because my family's trying to give me that connection, and people would just stare at me. And so I would just be like, no, just bring me back to my room. And I would go back to the room and go. I can't believe I want to be back here, but I do. And then I'd be in bed and go. I just want to get out of here yeah and it was just, it was just so.
Holly:Torture, yeah, and it was just. We'd watch tv and my mom would read me messages that people would reach out to me. Um, in my city, you know, I was in my 20s and I had a newborn and that's a very devastating, heartbreaking story. So it made the news and there was a lot of people reaching out to me and a lot of even strangers. You know people that had gone through GBS before reaching out, messaging my family, even stopping by the hospital to try to see me. Yeah, it was quite wild but it was very motivating to feel, you know, that love and that support of people all over just rooting for me. And my mom would read me these messages and go. You know there's so many people fighting alongside with you and you know you're not alone and you may not feel strong, uh, but we're here, we're your strength right now, while you have none oh man.
Brad:So when, how long was it before you finally started to see a light? You know where? When did things start to finally calm down to where you started feeling like whoa, hang on a second, something's a little bit better.
Holly:So, to be honest, that happened about six weeks in my fingertip moved, so that was the first movement that came back, which is very fascinating, that that was that first symptom. And then that's where it first came back Same finger and my family was ecstatic. They were like, oh my God, this is the sign, this is it, you're going to get better. But in that moment I was literally vomiting and in so much pain and crying that it was hard to get excited over a fingertip moving. So I wouldn't say that. You know, that was the pivotal moment for me. It was certainly for my family, that was a sign that I was getting better. It wasn't for me, though, but as time went on, I did get better. I didn't always, I wasn't always able to see that, but I was, and you know I wrote about it in my book, where I talk about the progression that I went through, and when I go through that I'm able to say like, wow, every day I did show signs of improvement in some way, but for me, I would say it was probably almost two months before I really started to believe that. You know, maybe I'm going to get out of here.
Holly:So when you're on a breathing tube. You know you're on a ventilator, you're surviving because of that machine and so, no matter what, even though I'm paralyzed, I can't do anything. I can't move my body. Priority number one is my breathing. And so they said you can't get out of ICU until you get off the ventilator. So you have to do these trials off the ventilator and you're going to do them for 15, 30 seconds at a time and gradually we're going to wean you off the ventilator. So you know, the priority number one is let's deal with that. So every day we would start doing those and I remember the first time that I did it, I truly felt like I was going to die.
Holly:I was running out of air, I was hyperventilating, I was panicking, I'm crying and I'm going, I can't do this, put me back on. So they put me back on and they said, okay, you lost 15 seconds. And I remember going 15 seconds like how am I going to last a day? How am I going to breathe on my own? I can't do this, I can barely last 15 seconds. And they said we're just going to keep going, we're just going to keep drying, one day at a time. So I kept drying and I remember I think it was like the third or fourth time. And I remember I think it was like the third or fourth time I made it to 15 minutes and my family was so happy and everyone was so happy.
Holly:But it had taken some time to get to those 15 minutes. And I remember again thinking 15 minutes like how long is it going to take for me to learn how to breathe? For 48 minutes, which is how long I needed to be able to last before they would consider taking out the trach and it just felt so impossible to me and everyone said you're making progress, you are making progress and I see that now I'm able to look back on it now, but at the time it didn't feel like it and I remember just feeling so hopeless and saying like I don't even know why I'm trying. I just can't see how I'm ever going to be able to do this. The nurses saw that. They said you know, we got to get. We got to get Kit back in here.
Holly:Kit's the name of the guy that's had GBS previously, so he comes back in and he brought the sign with him that time and it was actually a sign that one of his nurses who was also my nurse at the time. She had made this sign for him and she had put it on his wall and he said you know you need this more than I do. I'm putting it on your wall. And they used the hospital tape to tape it up because we didn't have regular tape. They used the hospital tape to tape it up because we didn't have regular tape. And I remember staring at it and said courage doesn't always roar, sometimes it's the quiet voice at day's end saying I will try again tomorrow.
Brad:Oh, that's amazing.
Holly:And I literally just bawled. I bawled because everybody was telling me oh my god, holly, you are so strong, you are going to get through this. You're such a fighter, you're a mom and you're going to fight to get back to your baby and you can do this. And I remember feeling almost disappointed in myself and frustrated with everyone, because I didn't feel like a fighter. I was laying there at times, just hopeless and not believing that I was going to get better, and so I felt like a phony. I felt like you guys think that I'm strong, but I'm not strong, because I'm actually at times just praying you know, just take me away, just let me, just let me die already, because I can't handle this pain anymore. So when I read that sign, it was like you know, courage doesn't always roar. You don't have to feel strong, you don't have to feel powerful. You can still just be strong and you can still just try to get through one day, one day, one day at a time, even one hour at a time, and you can just try again tomorrow. And so I said you know, that's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to keep trying again tomorrow. So every day we would go on the ventilator, go off the ventilator a little bit longer, and every day was a challenge and there were so many times where I would cry afterwards and go. You know, I don't think I can do this, but I would just say I'll try again tomorrow and I would do it again tomorrow, and the next time I would last a little bit longer and a little bit longer it would get a little bit easier and eventually I was able to last three hours. That was another huge turning point and I think it was at that point that I was like you know what, if I can do three hours, then maybe I can do this. And that's kind of when I knew that you know, I am going to get out of here and I am going to get back to my baby.
Holly:Of course, around this same time everything was kind of coming back at the same time, so the pain was diminishing and the weakness was diminishing. So I was able to kind of lift my hands up a little bit. I was very, very weak, but I could start to move things again. So that was another huge turning point. It was like, okay, there are signs that I might be able to get through this.
Holly:And we figured out a way to prop up the bottle, the baby bottle on my hand, and I could just put the bottle into my daughter's mouth and it was like, okay, I finally have purpose in my life, I finally can actually be her mom and do something with her. So those are some of the most joyous moments that I have from ICU is having her on my lap and feeding her and being off the ventilator and and just being able to feel my own breath. And it was so challenging even while I was doing it, having having that feeling of every single breath, but still, you know, just saying I will try again tomorrow and I'm going to try again tomorrow and eventually I was able to last 48 hours. They took out the trach. After a couple of days of being able to breathe completely on my own, I left ICU after 70 days in ICU.
Brad:So you're talking like. I mean, it was basically 10 weeks.
Holly:Yeah.
Brad:That this whole span, I mean that's sometimes you as parents. You probably as a parent, you probably think that 10 weeks isn't a lot, but when you're stuck in bed with pain and with this, with, with this helplessness, with you know your one joy is to see your daughter. That's a lot of time. It could feel forever, I imagine it truly truly did.
Holly:It felt like I couldn't even remember what I mean. I could remember what life was like, but it just it felt like such an eternity ago. It felt like I had been there for years. Every day was just felt like it was the same. It was wild it's crazy.
Brad:Okay, so you get you finally. You get out of icu ICU. You're breathing on your own. Obviously, you still have some pain.
Holly:I still had some mild pain, but not too bad actually, which was wonderful. Obviously, when you're not dealing with pain, then you feel like you can actually focus on getting better. I was still very, very weak, though, so that was a little bit hard for me. You know, I was like, okay, I'm better, I'm out of ICU and I can, like get back to my life. But then it was like no, you're so paralyzed and you can't feed yourself and you can't I mean your daughter's on your bed, but you still can't hold her in your arms, you still really can't function. And so it was like, okay, I still have a really long way to go. I was like, I said, the pain was a lot better.
Holly:So I was off the beds, I wasn't on as many, so I wasn't, as you know, out of it. I was much more aware of what was going on, much more awake. I wasn't sleeping as often. I'm in basically a neurology ward and I'm the youngest person on the ward. Everyone else is is stroke, mostly stroke victims, um, and yeah, I'm just kind of stuck in bed and physiotherapies came to visit me and said you know, we're going to, we're going to get you out of here, we're going to get you back to walking and I'm like I don't know how I'm going to do this. But I just learned how to breathe on my own and that kind of sparked this fire in me, because I truly did not believe I was going to be able to breathe on my own, promised myself I would try, and then I overcame that and it was like, wow, you actually can overcome hard things. So I didn't know how I was going to learn how to walk again, but I was like you know what, if I can learn how to breathe, then I can do anything. So I started physiotherapy and I started with so many different little exercises that I had to do Things like, you know, just trying to lift my leg. I couldn't lift my leg for many, many weeks, but they said you know, just try, just keep trying and try to, you know, activate those muscles, get things moving. I had to. My hands started coming back as well. So then I had to, you know, use putty and different little hand exercises. I had to fasten buttons and just open jars. There was just so many little different activities I had to do. I remember I had to like stack these cones, and it was so hard to do and there were so many times that I would cry and just say I just want my life back and why is this so hard and I can't do this? But I just kept promising myself, you know, just try again tomorrow. And that's what I would do. And gradually, over time, those small little improvements got better and better until eventually, you know, I could hold my daughter and I could pick her up.
Holly:I was moved to a rehab hospital. It was quite a while actually. After so I think it would have been after about four months I was moved to a rehab hospital and that's where I learned how to walk again and strengthen my legs. Enough. I started with a walker and had to, you know, walk this hallway. And I remember standing at the one end and looking down the hallway, going, oh my God, and it was so challenging to take those steps and it just felt like the hardest thing in the world. But I did them and over time my legs got a little bit stronger. I progressed to using a cane. I was eventually discharged.
Holly:I got out of the hospital before I, you know, before I was completely recovered, because it's obviously a lot better to continue recovering at home.
Holly:They actually let me out a little bit early, because they knew that my daughter was at home and they said you know, for your mental health we think it's better that you're at home with your daughter.
Holly:So I went home to finish my recovery there. You know, I stayed at home on the couch because I couldn't do stairs, I couldn't get up the stairs, I was in a wheelchair for a couple of months and that really changed my perspective on a lot of things. I just you don't realize what you have until you've lost it. And so to be in a wheelchair and to not be able to just get up and walk and do things was life-changing, especially when I was able to walk again. So I started with taking walks around the block with my walker and then I realized, you know what, my daughter's stroller gives me just as much balance. So I would use the stroller and so I would go for a walk around the block and I was so slow but I kept going and eventually I was able to get rid of the stroller and get rid of the walker and walk completely on my own.
Brad:Oh wow, what an incredible story. I just want to step back real quick. So from the moment from the onset to you being discharged out of ICU to a normal room was about four months. Sorry from the onset to getting out of ICU.
Holly:To getting out of ICU was two and a half months.
Brad:Okay, so that was two and a half months there, and then it was four months from onset before you got into the rehab hospital.
Holly:Yeah, yeah.
Brad:And then you were in rehab hospital for.
Holly:For about three weeks.
Brad:For about three weeks, so almost a month there.
Holly:Yeah.
Brad:So we're talking about four or five. So we're talking about six months before you got home 126 days. Wow, I mean, that's nuts, just thinking about this the fact that you had this tingle in your finger within 72 hours. You were on a respirator and then it took 126 days to get you back home and you still weren't done.
Holly:you know yeah, people don't realize it, but like I mean, I I was going through this, this experience, but my daughter was. She was a newborn and then she's growing up. When I got home, she was six months old.
Brad:So how long? I don't want to say normal, I don't want to say that. I think that's kind of a bad word, it does not. I don't think there is a normal here, but let's say to. So we're talking about six months before you got home, 126 days. Then to the point where let's just say say that you could make dinner, do the dishes, um, walk around the block, hold your, hold your child and feed it as like a, a normal ish I would say probably about seven months, before it was yeah-ish, where I could help out.
Holly:I was dealing with a lot of fatigue and after recovery, you know, I went through a lot of pain and then the pain disappeared and then it actually came back in a different way, and it's nerve pain, it's the damaged nerves basically, and so as I became more active, the worse, worse it got. So I couldn't do a lot. So I mean I was able to, you know, I could cook and I could clean and I could go for walks and I could live my life, but then I paid for it and so I was. I was off work for almost two years and I was just at home, you know, just recovering, and and very fortunate, you know, I wanted to be at home anyways with my daughter. So it was a wonderful bonding time and it was great therapy for me to, you know, to practice lifting her up and doing those things.
Holly:I continued with outpatient therapy for quite a while, probably about six months, where I went to see a physiotherapist and did all these different exercises because I was still very, very weak. I mean you wouldn't see it like, you wouldn't notice it by looking at me, but I couldn't. I had trouble with lifting things, I had trouble with getting up the stairs, I had trouble with walking long periods. I would just get so exhausted that I would need to lay down and I was sleeping a lot. But I would say it was about a year, a little over a year, before I truly started to be like okay, I feel like my life is actually where I was before.
Brad:And that's a long year. Sometimes we think that, oh my God, it's June. We're almost halfway through 2024. What happened, but for you in that year, 2011 to 12, that had to feel like an eternity.
Holly:It did, it truly did.
Brad:Oh my God, so, wow, that's amazing. So you said you ended up not working for what this was, two years before you finally got back to work.
Holly:Yep, what did that feel like, your first day at work after going through all of this piece of the puzzle? It was, you know, I was doing everything else. It took so many different things that you know, to give me my life back. You know, I had to get my driver's license. I actually had to retake it because of everything that I went through. So, you know, that was one step.
Holly:And then the first time that I was actually, you know, able to be at home alone with my daughter, because before that there was a lot of times where, you know, I couldn't physically hold her or physically care for her, so I couldn't be alone with her for a lot of time. So that was another step. And then, the first time that I, you know, went out in public, the first time I went to a restaurant, the first time that I walked the mall, the first time I went to a football game, like there was all these little things. And so work was the last piece of the puzzle. That was like, okay, I'm finally back to work and back to getting to my life, and it feels like I am here and finally made it.
Brad:Oh my God. So I and I'm just wondering if this happens to you, because I'm thinking about what, what, what you went through and and I know I'm way off in my head, I know it's much, much worse. But just just to give you, because I I can't even imagine it. But do you, when you talk to your family about this, do you kind of go like OK, that was, that was B, b, gbs and then c, gbs, 100?
Holly:yeah, oh okay, I totally, I totally view my life as uh before and after, uh before gbs and after gbs you're just right.
Brad:Okay, yeah, I just that's the first. I was just like, oh my god, she probably, because it sounds, when you said, the firsts, right. The first ball game, the first, yeah, that's all I'm, I was just like oh my God, she probably because it sounds when you said the firsts right, the first football game, the first half to rest. That's all I'm thinking about is oh my God, it's like she's doing it all over again.
Holly:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It felt like I was all in a way, like reborn right, like I like just like a new baby and that was kind of motivating. And I remember the nurses saying, like your daughter's doing the same thing, she's learning how to do all this stuff too. So it's like, okay, she's doing it. If she can do it, then I can do it. And yeah, I was just. I had to be reborn and I had to relearn how to do all this stuff.
Holly:And you know, I've got this scar on my neck now from the breathing tube. And it is funny to look back on pictures and it's like pre-GBS, before I had the scar, before everything that had happened. And then it's after GBS and who I am now. And I mean it changed me so drastically when, once I was home, it was like me so drastically when, once I was home, it was like, okay, I was in my 20s, I was so naive to all the diseases out there, all the health issues that people deal with. When I was in ICU and you know, I saw and heard a lot of different things that people were dealing with and it was just like, wow, you just are. You are so naive when, naive. When you don't know somebody or you're not going through any health issues, you take for granted your health for sure.
Holly:And so once I was healthy again and I was feeling good and I could do things, I felt so grateful, so grateful that I could hold a bottle and feed my daughter. I remember being so excited that I could change her diaper and just being so excited that I could play outside with her and go for a walk with her, and it was just like this huge, huge sense of gratitude that I don't think I would ever had had I not gone through what I did, and it just made me appreciate being a mom so much more. And it just made me appreciate being a mom so much more and it really gave us this very unique bond that, again, I just I don't think we would have had had we not gone through it, and so I've been able to look at that as a blessing. You know, I went through so much pain.
Holly:I went through so most pain that I could ever think I would experience times where I didn't think I was going to make it out alive, but I wouldn't change it for the world because it truly made me who I am. It changed my view on life. It made me realize how short life is. You know, we got to go after the things that we want to do now, because life can change literally in the blink of an eye Within 72 hours. I was completely paralyzed on life support and it's made me really view the world differently.
Brad:You know, as you were talking about, as you're talking about being, you know, grateful that you're able to do this stuff. I've constantly been trying. You know they have the whole thing, the gratitude journal, right. You know, that's like the, that's the thing that's been going on and and a lot of people have told me that when you come from a place of gratitude, that things start to look brighter. And I've done this gratitude journal and I feel like I'm writing the same things down all the time.
Brad:I'm grateful for my family and I'm grateful for this, and you know what I think you have like taught me at least me personally, and hopefully some, if some, people that are listening to this that you know what there's so much more to be grateful for. I'm grateful like I, I'm all about I, where I was. I was all about, you know, pen to paper right, putting pen to paper, not just a keyboard. I'm not doing it on keyboard, I'm doing it on pen to paper and I'm like you know where I'm thinking about. Oh, I'm grateful for my family, I'm grateful that they're healthy, I'm grateful for the sun that comes up and blah, blah, blah. Now talking to you, I'm like I'm grateful that I can hold the pen to write this gratitude journal. I'm down to that.
Brad:So listen, folks, that's something that you need to take away from this the the, the ability that within 72 hours, you could be completely paralyzed for, you know, not be able to have any kind of normalist right what life for a year if that? And then it's still a struggle. So let's go on post-GBS. And where did you start thinking about writing, putting all this down to paper and coming up with your book Her book, by the way, life Support, surviving Guillain-Barre Syndrome A Mother's Story of Hope and Recovery, by Holly Francis, and we will have a link to that in the show notes. But when did the idea for the book come out?
Holly:It's actually a funny story. It was quite quickly so I think it was about four months after I had got out of the hospital I went back to ICU to visit my nurses and doctors and say hi, and walk in there and it was incredible. I looked obviously completely different. I looked like I was dying when I was in ICU. So I walked in there and I was with Casey, who by that point was much older, and so they didn't even recognize us. They're like hi, who are you here to visit? And I'm like it's me, it's Holly. And they were just blown away. They couldn't even believe it and it was incredible. It was so joyous and just amazing to thank the nurses for you being my rock on those really challenging days.
Holly:But I was talking to one of my respiratory therapists. He was one of the guys that you know dealt with my breathing and he was there quite a bit and was very, very supportive and helpful for our family and gave us a lot of insight into GBS. We learned so much from him and we were reminiscing about the times and it was crazy that we could actually look back and laugh at some of the things that I went through in ICU. It was like, oh, do you remember when this happened? And you were hyperventilating, oh my God, we were panicking and I remember like we're like laughing about it. We're like I can't believe we're laughing about it now. But we did. And the doctor was like you know what? You went through so much. It is insane what you went through in such a short amount of time. You could practically write a book about it. And instantly when he said it, I was like I'm going to do that, I'm going to write a book about it. And so that's what I did.
Holly:And I was very fortunate because my mom, she had documented everything in a calendar every day, basically, of every update, so everything that was going on. And the reason she did that is because she wanted to show me that I was improving. So when I would be like mom, why am I not getting better? I'm not getting better, how, how can I get through this? When, when are things going to turn around? She would say. She would flip the calendar over and say, look here you. This is the first time that you moved your head again and this is the first time you were able to move your hand. Your blood pressure is better and your heart rate is better. So that's what she used that calendar for, and so I had it all documented and it would obviously spark these memories. She also took a lot of videos and pictures, which you've probably seen on my website, and I remember at the time thinking like why are you videoing me? This is not the time to video me, but she was doing it because she had seen Kit's journey, basically from his recovery from beginning to end, and she wanted to do the same. She thought that it would be helpful and I'm so glad she did, obviously because I was able to piece back everything that I went through and I could actually see it for my own eyes on video. The first time that I breathed on my own again, the first time that I was able to use my hand again, and so I just started writing and I wrote and it came out and from there my life drastically changed.
Holly:At that point I remember just wanting to find other people that had gone through GBS, because when you're at ICU and the doctors and nurses are telling you you're one of one to two out of every 100,000 people. You're the only person in this hospital that has it. I've never seen a case before. Many nurses had never dealt with a GBS patient before. It's very isolating. You feel very alone. People are telling you you're going to get better and you're saying you're not the one in my shoes. You can't possibly understand so to me. I just wanted to find these other GBS survivors, and I did.
Holly:This was just, you know, when Facebook was starting to get really, really big, and I found all these other people through hashtags. You know Guillain-Barre syndrome. There was so many people around the world that had gone through what I had gone through and some very similar cases, some very mild cases, some people who had given birth, and it was just like, oh my gosh, these are my people. These people totally get it. And so I wrote my book.
Holly:I put out my book. I actually made a YouTube video of my journey with the videos that my mom had made, put it out there and from there it just kind of skyrocketed and I had all these people from around the world reaching out to me, going. You know I had GBS. I didn't even know that there was other people out there like you. Thank you for giving me hope. There's people asking me questions how do I get through this? There's people you know my family member is in icu right now. We thought that they were going to die, but your story has given us hope and doctors reaching out to me going. Thank you so much for educating people about gbs and showing people what it is and what it does to people, and it just, it was just like this, this light bulb moment for me. It was like you know what I? I know why I had gbs. I it for a reason and that was to show other people that they can get through it.
Brad:That is what we all hope that people would do with, with with a journey like that Um, you know, taking in such a, such a debilitating, you know disease and coming out on the other side. So what are you doing with the community? Now? I see that you became a professional, a certified trainer. Are you using that to spark more awareness and to say that, okay, this is what to do afterwards to keep yourself?
Holly:Yeah. So basically, once I had recovered, I remember I was still weak, you know, still going through physiotherapy, recovered, but still not 100%. And I had met a physiotherapist that said, you know, like let's get you back to 100%. I was like, well, you know, I'm pretty close, I don't think I need to do any further. And he said, no, don't you want to be better than what you are? And he really pushed me and I went through kind of this extensive program and it came out of it basically stronger than I was before going through GBS.
Holly:And I realized, you know, if you put in the work and you put in a lot of the effort and the time, that you can get stronger. And so I had a lot of people reaching out to me asking me questions what did you do? I started exercising regularly. I never exercised before GBS. It was not part of my life, it became such a huge part of my lifestyle. I realized, you know, it not only helps with my weakness, it helps me just feel better overall. And I got into the best shape of my life. And so I was sharing my story and I created this, basically a Facebook page called Holly after GBS started connecting with people all around the world and people were asking me all these exercise questions and I would answer what I, what I knew. But I said you know, I'm not an expert. And gradually over time I said you know what actually I need to learn more. I want to learn more. So I got certified. I actually worked with clients for quite a while.
Holly:A lot of GBS survivors helped them just regain strength, showed them how to exercise in a very efficient way and how to you know, just very safe way. There's so many different things that I learned along the way. You know, exercise doesn't have to be this like all or nothing. It doesn't have to be like oh, you're running on a treadmill, you're in the gym working out as hard as possible it can be, you're sitting on a couch, standing up and sitting back down and doing that 10 times in a row and maybe it's hard, but that's going to help you get stronger and when you're gradually doing that over time, you're getting stronger and stronger and regaining that strength. So I've built this little community in the GBS world I found all these incredible people that have gone through what I have are very similar. All obviously share this very unique bond that most people you know that they don't ever go through something like we do.
Holly:I joined the GBS CIDP Foundation, which is a foundation here in Canada. I actually I joined first as a volunteer because I said you know, how can I help, how can I get more involved? And one of the first things that I surprisingly that I wanted to do was I wanted to visit people in the hospital, the way that Kit had done for me. So I said you know, I want to go visit those patients that are in ICU that don't believe that they're going to get out of here, and walk in and show them that there is hope time. And then, gradually, I worked my way up to be on the board of directors and it's such a huge part of my life now and I do you know do we do awareness events, we do conferences.
Brad:I've been to the states quite a bit because the US also has a US chapter, and so I just get to meet Haitians from all over the world and and it's just been life changing and maybe it's a little personal and you don't have to answer if you don't want to, um, but you've mentioned it two or three times now and watching the videos and stuff and I see that your, your husband, was there with you at the time with with casey and stuff. What was there? Was there major changes because you were, I mean, kind of gone, you know not really being able to be around. I mean was a year and then all of a sudden, you know not really being able to be around, I mean it was a year and then all of a sudden, you know, before you were able to really get going again, it's, you know, it's a little over a year. Was there things that changed at home at that point because of you being gone and because of the just the stress level of dealing with a loved one going through that?
Holly:I wouldn't say that it was from that. Actually it wasn't from the stress. My husband at the time was absolutely incredible. He was very supportive. He was there every single day, by my side. He was a huge reason why I overcame what I did and he was an incredible father. Obviously, he had to be the one that was taking care of Casey while she was at home Once I recovered.
Holly:You know, it was a really great time when I first recovered, but gradually, over time, you know, I was just such a different person, and I think he was as well. What we went through just changed us both very, very drastically. From then, you know, we had a daughter, we had a two-year-old. At that point is when we separated, and so it was a couple of years after going through GBS. But what we went through it had changed us so much that we were just different people and we viewed the world very differently.
Holly:And after going through what I had gone through, it was like, you know, life is very short and we need to be happy and happiness needs to be number one. And so we did separate and divorced a few years after that, a few years after that. But you know, life is what it is, and I believe that everything does happen for a reason. And he is very still a huge part of my life and very involved in my daughter's life as well, and we co-parent. Amazingly, I've actually gone on to remarry. I actually just got remarried three weeks ago now. Oh, congratulations.
Brad:Yeah, yeah, yeah, so fantastic, yeah oh, wow, okay, well, so so you, basically you would say, is that or so the the experience changed you, um, or you made some changes in the way you looked at life and that life just wasn't compatible anymore. Yeah, um, but I gave him kudos because he was there for you, no matter, no matter how much he felt like he was changing, and I still give him kudos that he's still a wonderful father to Casey, and especially now, uh, I know that. You know, I remember my, my niece, you know. She flipped a switch at like 12, at 12. She flipped a switch. There was this.
Brad:I watched her, I watched her, we were, we were, we were in, in, uh, universal Orlando. I watched the switch. All of a sudden, she's, you know, she's, was this this, this girl? She was a gymnast. She was like, yeah, and, and it's smiling, and then, with a switch, yeah, and, and smiling, and with a switch, all of a sudden she's talking back to our mom and I was like again, and we all like our mouths dropped and after that it was like a terror, yes, so, and I was like, and unfortunately she, you know, didn't have a full-time father at the time and I'm like this is the time. She needs a full time. Yeah, so I'm. So I'm hoping that you're not going through that, or at least it's tamed.
Holly:It's. Yeah, I am so blessed. Casey is such a joy. She's definitely turning into a teenager. She is 13 now and it's wild because she's actually taller than me. It's so crazy to see, just to look back on you know where we came from and that little baby that she was in the hospital, to who she is now and how quickly time goes right. It doesn't feel like it was that long ago for me that I was in the hospital, but she's 13 years old and becoming a young woman now.
Brad:Oh, that's, that's. That is fantastic. Um, is she, you know? Does she already have it in her head that she's beginning to become a physician and she's going to solve this problem?
Holly:No, I think she's got a little bit of trauma from from, uh, the hospital, which is interesting. I mean, obviously she doesn't remember she was a newborn, she was a little baby, uh, but she does find it really really challenging to you know, look at the videos, look at the pictures. We've tried to read my book a little bit and she's just not there yet.
Brad:So OK, well, kudos to you to being a great mom like you are, to recognize that and say that you know, not force that on her. You know, let her do her thing, yeah, but that's yeah, that's amazing and um, yes, so I, I mean, I'm not part of the of that community, but as somebody that has witnessed um traumatic, uh, traumatic episodes of things and oh and I'll tell you about that in a minute, maybe when we get offline here um, an idea, um, but thank you, you know what I mean. It's. It's people like you putting the experience that you had and turning it into a positive to help all the other people that are, in this case, going through, you know, bouts with gbs or coming out of gbs, or because, as of whatever in your book, they recognize early. You know that maybe this is happening to them. So, um, kudos to you, thank you. Thank you for doing what you do.
Brad:I look for these people. This is why that, this is why the podcast, um, you know, is the right thing for people and why I do what I do, because it's life-changing and you had the challenge and you got through it and instead of wallowing in it or saying, okay, you know, it's part of my life. I'm done, you've made something with it and helping people. Oh no, no, it's okay, excuse me. Yeah, no problem. So thank you so much, though, for everybody else. As we wrap this up, I just want to say remember the. Her book is called life support surviving Guillain-Barre syndrome a mother's story of hope and recovery. Again, her name is Holly Francis. Look for that. It's on Amazon. I'm going to have a link to it, and she also has a website, hollyaftergbscom. And where else would be the best way for people to, you know, hook up with you and, you know, ask you some of those questions?
Holly:Yeah, so the website's kind of the easiest way to find everything, but I am on Facebook, instagram, youtube as well, so just kind of whatever, whatever genre you prefer.
Brad:All right. So is that an whatever, whatever genre you prefer All right.
Holly:So is that enough for?
Brad:people to slide into, absolutely, absolutely, all right. There you go, folks. Hey again, holly Francis. It has been an honor and a privilege, thank you.
Holly:Thank you so much for having me and just giving me the opportunity to share my story and to bring awareness to GBS. You know, so many people don't understand what it is and what it's like to go through. Even like nurses I talk to are just so grateful that I'm bringing awareness to share. Even for them they're like you know what. I've never seen a case before. I didn't realize what you go through, and that's what my book I think is great. It really goes through the progression and really explains what it is. So thank you for having me on the show. It was great.
Brad:No, thank you. And for the rest of you, go ahead and hit the share button and show it to other people in your family any way that you think that would benefit from this. And if you really liked it which I can't see how you would not like this episode between me and Holly come on, Go ahead and leave a star rating, give a little comment, tell us how it was, Give us some honest feedback on any ways that I can improve the episodes and, with that being said, we'll see you in the next one.
