A Mysterious Disease Left This College Marathoner Paralyzed. Here’s How She Got Back on Her Feet

Runner's World ^ | January 3, 2019 | Hailey Middlebrook

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Two days after her 21st birthday on May 25, 2018, Anastasia Soule was lying in an emergency room in New Orleans, Louisiana. She didn’t see it coming. And she definitely wasn’t prepared for what came next.

Before things went south, the weekend was set to be the ultimate mother-daughter getaway. Soule, a senior studying economics and public policy at the University of North Carolina, had planned a vacation to New Orleans with her mom, opting for a few relaxed days exploring the Southern city instead of a rowdy trip with friends.

But from the moment their plane landed on Thursday, May 24, something felt off. Soule’s hands and toes were tingling, as if pins and needles were poking them.

She didn’t think much of it, though, she told Runner’s World. As a competitive distance runner since high school and a recent marathon finisher—she even qualified for Boston with a 3:31 at the Tobacco Road Marathon in Cary, North Carolina this past March— she was accustomed to random aches and pains in her body.

“I figured I was just dehydrated or hadn’t slept enough,” said Soule.

On the next day, her birthday, she felt even worse. The prickling sensation in her extremities continued as she and her mom toured the city, and she began feeling achy and fatigued, as if she was coming down with the flu. Still, the runner mustered the energy to go out that night for celebratory cocktails, but she had to turn in after one drink, her head throbbing.

“I knew it wasn’t the drink,” she said. “I told my mom, ‘I’m in college, I’ve had a drink before.’ This was something different.”

[ConjunctionJunction]

"The results finally came in: Soule had Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves and causes paralysis."

[Blurb2350]

I wonder if she’d had a flu vaccine shortly before the GBS. Something like 30% of all GBS sufferers have had a flu shot in the month before symptoms begin.

[sarge83]

I had transversemylitis at age 19, which is a virus that attacks the immune system and sheath over your nerves. No cure or treatment for it, you get steroids and PT if you start to get movement back. So make full recovery, some partial and some no movement. I hit the partial recovery mode and walk with canes. I didn’t get any movement below my chest for weeks when it took all my concentration to barely move one big toe. My endurance is short and balance is awful but it beats a wheelchair. Glad the lady in the post didn’t quit!

[ConjunctionJunction]

From the sounds of things, I’m glad you didn’t quit either!

[Falconspeed]

Amazing suffering. Amazing strength, both you and the runner. “She couldn’t move or speak.” Wow.

[Mr Radical]

But from the moment their plane landed on Thursday, May 24, something felt off.
I'm convinced the typical modern passenger aeroplane cabin is one big factory incubator for viruses and bacteria.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I was wondering the same thing. I have no idea why a vaccine would provoke such a horrible autoimmune reaction in some people.

[sarge83]

Thanks for the kind words I appreciate them very much. It’s been a tough road. A couple of weeks after the paralysis hit I caught a blood clot in the lung due to a hospital screw up and survived before clot busting drugs, roughly 4% lived according to my doctor at the time. But the grace of God was with me and I am eternally grateful for it.

Old age is creeping in and slowing me down considerably but each day after the clot issue is icing on the cake. God is good.

[MD Expat in PA]

I wonder if she’d had a flu vaccine shortly before the GBS. Something like 30% of all GBS sufferers have had a flu shot in the month before symptoms begin.

While rare and not anywhere near some 30%, GBS can be triggered by a vaccine. It is more common however to occur in people who have been recently sickened with a bacterial (bacterium Campylobacter jejuni is one of the most common risk factors for GBS - likely occur due to eating raw or undercooked poultry, or to eating something that touched it) or viral infection like influenza, other viral respiratory infections. In other words, you are more likely to get GBS from the influenza than from the influenza vaccine.

Anyone who has previously been diagnosed with GBS should not get an influenza vaccination, which makes it more incumbent on others not otherwise recommended not to get it, to get the vaccine as someone who has previously had GBS are susceptible to having a reoccurrence if they come down with the flu.