Up from the Abyss: A Journey of Personal Redemption from the Ravages of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780595363025)

I assure you, though, there is nothing trite about coming down with Guillain-Barr syndrome. For the person hit by it, it's war and revolution wrapped in one: A catastrophe, an upheaval, a devastating blow. But also an invaluable experience and a possibility for renewal. I wouldn't be what I am now, a man at peace with himself and the world, had I not come down with, and fought back from, this terrible ailment. But I don't want to sound excessive. It isn't terminal cancer at young age, or trauma-induced coma and vegetative state; but, as Joseph Heller said, it's no laughing matter, either. The blessing about Guillain-Barr syndrome-and I mean that with only a little bit of irony-is that it doesn't affect the gray matter upstairs. You know it's bad, but you also know it can be defeated, and the struggle to overcome it lends a tremendous meaning of truthfulness to the old saying: 'That which does not kill you." You know the rest. It can paralyze you completely, and, occasionally, do you in, but the road back or, as I imply in my title, the uphill struggle from the abyss is Herculean and character forming.

Author: Italo Giovanni Savella
ISBN-10: 0595363024
ISBN-13: 9780595363025
Publisher: iUniverse
Language: English
Published: 07/07/2005
Pages: 76
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.27lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.18d