Kadence Holthouser
On March 4, 2023, Kadence woke up with double vision and numbness to her face. We took her to the ER but with no other symptoms, they released us thinking it was an ocular migraine fast forward a day and her eyes were starting to cross and we could just tell something wasn’t right. We woke up that next morning and went to the pediatrician where our amazing doctor decided to send us back to the ER as her face started to seem stroke-like. She was admitted and by that time was starting to have a harder time walking we saw an ophthalmologist who believed it was Miller-Fisher Syndrome, and they decided to keep us overnight. The next morning, she was unable to feel anything from the knee down that is when they said they believed it to be GBS and were going to do a spinal tap. The results showed that she had GBS but overlapping variants of Miller Fisher and pharyngeal cervical brachial variants.
She started that afternoon slurring her speech and having difficulty breathing they had respiratory, and speech come in checking on her frequently. The next morning, she went into respiratory failure, and we were transferred to ICU to be placed on a ventilator. As a mother, there is nothing worse than watching your child fade away from themselves and nothing you can do. But I can’t even imagine how she felt within 48 hours of being diagnosed. She was intubated and paralyzed head down being trapped inside her own body is unimaginable. She ended up having 7 plasmapheresis treatments we spent a total of 22 days in the ICU and then transferred to inpatient rehab for another 25 days. Today, my amazing girl recovered and returned to her volleyball season like a champ. She truly is the biggest inspiration to me! What a testimony she has of god love and I hope she wants to continue to share that with people!
