Michelle from Stockton, CA gave this testimony to her 9CP Literature class on September 25, 2009:

You probably wonder why I have "Tingling Toes" as my title. Well it’s because three months ago I was diagnosed with Gillian Barre syndrome. I started noticing it when my toes and just about both of my feet starting tingling and feeling kind of numb. Then it started to get worst. I’d fall periodically at school. I couldn’t walk up a step without my legs shaking and feeling weak. If I was sitting on the ground I couldn’t get back up because my legs would give out if I tried.

Of course we went to the doctor when it first started happening and she suggested we go to a neurologist. Then the neurologist suggested we do an EMG and some blood tests. The EMG was horrible; they put needles in your muscles and shocked you, it was a way to check the reflexes but it was pure torture. You know how it feels when someone shocks you by accident? Well times that by ten an add a needle to it. The neurologist then suggested that I get a spinal tap. Which is, they stick a big needle in your back where I guess you have a sack of spinal fluids and take some? My thoughts were terrified and confused. Needles were not my friend. I am absolutely and utterly terrified of them. After, when I got home I cried but knew I had to do it.

The day had finally come when I had to get the spinal tap. We had to go to Modesto Emergency room to do it. I was nervous, terrified, and just wanted to get it over with. They took my weight, height, blood pressure, temperature, and gave me a wristband with my name and some codes on it. The next thing I know is that I’m in an ugly pastel blue gown and getting ready for an I.V. The thing was I’d never had an I.V. before, So my whole body went into full on panic mode. My palms were sweaty, my body temperature dropped, and the monitor that took my heart rate was beeping because my heart rate was so high.

When the nurse was finally ready to put the needle in my hand, I was squeezing my mom’s hand and yelling random things. The I.V. went through. It felt like a little pinch and then coolness traveled up my arm. I was so disgusted with the thing I had to hide it from my eyes but it’s hard not to look when you have a needle stuck in your hand. All of sudden they tell us they don’t do spinal taps at their hospital and that were going in an ambulance to Santa Clara. My mom, my sister, and I were shocked. An Ambulance? The word "Why?" was all we could think about. They told us they would arrive in the next hour or so. That gave us time to digest what they just said and to figure out what to do.

The ambulance arrived and the team moved me from my bed to their own gurney. The gurney had a heart rate monitor and a blood pressure machine and a place to hold my IV fluid. I was kind of excited, even though this wasn’t a fun matter. I had always wondered what it was like in an ambulance, and now I knew. When they wheeled me out of the hospital into the ambulance my mind was on graduation. It was only a week away, but I knew sick or not I was going to walk for 8th grade graduation, and say my speech.

The ambulance truck was nice, they had lights, generators, and of course medicine and first aid stuff. I fell asleep as I watched the road through the back windows of the ambulance truck. I woke up when they moved me into the hospital. It was midnight and they were ready for my spinal tap, but I wasn’t.

When they put me in my room for the spinal tap, they put medicine in my IV. I started to feel weird and kind of loopy. Then I shut my eyes and fell asleep. I woke up with my vision clouded and I could see nurses all around me. But I felt a pain in my back, and I was stiff from being on my side for that long. The nurses tried to stop me from moving. Then I finally realized they weren’t done with the spinal tap! I started screaming and crying because the medicine was wearing off and the pain was unbearable. One of the nurses tried to calm me with a colorful sticker. I still remember thinking: "Yah, like a sticker will help me?"

Half an hour later it was done. I was flipped on my back and my eyes were all red and puffy from crying. I was not a happy camper, but glad that it was over with. My mom came in, and the nurses came back to take some blood, again! They took what they needed and returned me back to my room, which was pale and smelled like disinfectant. Normally a spinal tap only takes between thirty minutes to an hour, but mine took a total of almost three hours. I slept peacefully until they came in and said they forgot to put something on my blood tests, so they had to take even more blood. Great! When they were finally finished, I got a couple hours of sleep.

The next day they diagnosed me with Gillian Barre syndrome, and decided over ther next 4 days to give me forty hours of antibody infusions and Benadryl afterwards. When they first gave me the Benadryl, they didn’t tell me the side effects of it so there I was freaking out, with my body trying to fight the effects of it. My body eventually lost the battle, and my eyes rolled back and I was thrown into a deep, deep sleep.

The days went by, but not in a good way. They said that if the medicine wasn’t working, they would have to put me on a ventilator in the ICU for up to 8 months. The tingling in my body started to progress into my arms and I knew that it needed to stop soon. I walked through the hospital everyday even though it was tiring, because I knew it wasn’t good for me to just sit in bed all day. I still remember one night they had to redo my IV six times because my vein wouldn’t take the needle, and I definitely was not little miss sunshine about it. I kicked, screamed and continuously begged for them to stop. They didn’t allow me to eat for two days, because they feared that it was progressing throughout my body. It was horrible, and all I wanted to do was eat. When I was finally able to eat I remember that I had a soda and pizza waiting in the fridge and basically inhaled it. The next night the IV broke out of my vein and my hand was swollen multiple times bigger than my other hand. Just call me Popeye!

Eventually, after being in the hospital for five days, I was finally released. Getting outside of the hospital was so exhilarating. The fresh air, sunlight, food, and of course my bed. I was able to walk at my graduation, and I was so happy, and felt very blessed. I was a living miracle; I went from basically being told I would be in the hospital for eight months, to being released in five days. I had everyone at my church praying for me, and I even had people at another church fasting for me, and gave me a "Blessed" handkerchief. I prayed for myself, and I honestly believe that God was the one who healed me. This was such an important experience because it taught me that I was had a really great life and shouldn’t take it for granted. I learned that if you ever have tingling toes make sure you don’t blow it off as nothing, trust me on that!