Young Mum Paralysed While Brushing Her Teeth

A young mother was shocked to find out she had a rare disease when she became paralysed as she was brushing her teeth.

Mum Chloe McMahon-Swift, 22, from Mernda Victoria, has said she is now unable to walk, talk and eat properly.

She said that she first observed the symptoms of her paralysis early in December, but she and her local GP dismissed it as just a cold.

In her GoFund Me page, Ms McMahon-Swift described how she felt constant pins and needles in her feet, which soon travelled to her hands. She wrote:

“I was absolutely exhausted doing the littlest things, like washing dishes, showering. I couldn’t even hold my son, or look after him as I just was too weak.”

Ms McMahon-Swift said she became weaker as she tried to care for her son and work in disability support.

“I would cry to my partner (Josh) saying I just want to feel normal again.

“I was also having horrible shooting pain in my neck and it would shoot up to my head. I couldn’t move it much as it was too painful,” she wrote.

After a few weeks, Ms McMahon-Swift said she felt the paralysis fully seeping in when she was left unable to spit out the toothpaste or move her mouth while brushing her teeth.

She was immediately taken to hospital where tests revealed she had Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that attacked healthy nerve cells and eventually causes paralysis. The disease affects just one in 100,000 people worldwide and sadly, it is said to be incurable.

Now, Ms McMahon-Swift has been in hospital for two weeks and is receiving treatment daily.

Thankfully, she said her speech is improving and she is now able to walk short distances and eat again.

However, she wrote that she still needs to go to rehab for treatment and wouldn’t be able to work until she is back at full health. “I just want to try my best to get better as soon as I can and look after my family,” she said.

Source: Au.news.yahoo.com