Let me begin.....

So. Here we are. The Daily skid Mark. In the next few days I will try to make you think, make you laugh, make you cry and probably make you sick. Maybe not!

I want to share a story about an illness that I suffered that almost took my life. Something that started out with food poisoning, and 3 months later turned into a fight for my survival. I have disecussed this before on Facebook, and some of my friends know about what I went through. It was a scary part of my life that still haunts me to this day.

And no, it wasn't explosive herpes.

It was Guillain-Barre syndrome.

In medical terms, Guillain-Barre syndrome is an autoimmune disorder (the body's immune system attacks itself). Exactly what triggers Guillain-Barre syndrome is unknown. The syndrome may occur at any age, but is most common in people of both sexes between ages 30 and 50.

Basically, your immune system eats the connection away from your nerves to your brain. Disconnecting your ability to talk, move and in even worse, your ability to breathe.

In October of 1998, I was living in southern California in between radi gigs. I was OH so very hungry, and the sandwich this day was an Arby's chicken and bacon masterpiece. After plowing through my curly fries, I squeezed out my Arbys Sauce and just DESTROYED that culinary sammich! Yumm-O! I finished my meal and drove home to watch the sun go down.

But the sandwich had other plans.

2 hours after I finished the meal, I was sick. And I mean SICK! I had had stomach flu before, but this was just horrible. Without going in to great detail, I spent literally HOURS in the bathroom. I could hold no food or liquids down. And this went on for 3 weeks. The LONGEST 3 weeks in my life (up until then.).

I ended up at a medical center because I had lost 28 pounds. IV's of fluids and lots of meds broughy me back, but I still suffered from fatigue. I ended flying back to Michigan in mid-November because I had a hard time recovering from that damn chicken sandwich. (To be fair, it turned out it was the sauce packet. There was a pinhole that caused bacteria to get into the sauce, thus creating a recipe, so to speak, for disaster.).

November rolled on, and December came and went and still I suffered from the effects of this damn meal I so HAD to have. It was to the point where I didn't even want to get out of bed. Food tasted starnge, and activities were basically impossible. Then came January, 1999. The single most scary month in my 45 years on this planet. I can never fully explain the hell that I had to go through. I would never wish it upon anyone.

I mean it. NOBODY deserves this.

Around the middle of January my fatigue got the best of me, and I contracted Viral Pneumonia. I was finally stuck in the hospital because of how fast it hit me. I went from tired to OH MY GOD I CAN'T BREATHE! To the hospital with me! Turns out the food poisoning had so damaged my immune system, that it was only a matter of time before this was going to happen. I went in on a Friday afternoon. They stuck me with needles, crammed pills down my throught and collected fluids from both my lungs and my.....well, you know. They inserted an IV of anibiotics that were HELLA strong! No idea what it was, but in 24 hours I statred feeling better than I had in the last 3 months. Hell, the last 3 YEARS! By Sunday, I was ready to go home because it was like a COMPLETE change from the previous shart-fest that I had enjoyed.

So Monday morning, I went home. 11:25am. Feeling good. Still suffering from fluid in my lungs from the pneummonia, but I had energy.....and it felt good.

But this was the beginning of the end for me, but I had no idea. Inside my body was a time bomb ready to go off, and take everything I was with it. My life was in extreme danger, and nobody knew. Not even the doctors that had just picked over my body for 3 days........