I won the GBS lottery in 1976. I got a swine flu shot and ended up with a mild case of GBS. I missed a couple of weeks work and have been basically free of any severe post GBS syndromes since then.
Decades later, I can still have aching upper jaws, sore neck muscles and mandible aches, when I am really tired.
I call it Nature’s way of telling Old Dave to slow down and to rest. My wife is a great RN. She can tell by the slight changes in my verbal skills that the low grade GBS is still there. Then, I need to shut up, rest and slow down for about 8 hours. A glass or two of a good California red wine works very well in these instances.
Post my original severe GBS onset, My lab values within a few months went to normal across the board. My current FP runs lab tests on me yearly, and they are very normal and boring as per my doctor. He says that I have better lab values than most 30-40 year old guys versus an 80 year old.
Data then and later show that more often GBS appears after getting the current flu bug each year without a flu shot.
3 years ago, a good friend with Parkinson’s got a steroid shot and then he caught the flu two weeks later. Within a week, he was hospitalized with severe GBS and nearly died. 3 Years later he is still in a rest home and has to use a wheel chair. He never got a flu shot before his GBS onset event.
My wife adult relatives and I still take the flu shot every year with basically no problems.
Dave — so sorry to hear about your problems with GBS and glad you are free of severe symptoms now although it sounds like it is still ongoing. Life is a crap shoot and you never know what’s around the corner.