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Holly's Remarkable Journey: From Guillain-Barré Syndrome to Inspiring Millions
•Avik Chakraborty
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What happens when your life changes in an instant? For Holly Frances , that moment came just three weeks after giving birth when a rare autoimmune disorder called Guillain-Barré Syndrome left her completely paralyzed and fighting for her life on a ventilator.
Her story begins with what seemed like ordinary postpartum fatigue and strange tingling sensations. Within 72 hours, those mild symptoms had cascaded into full-body paralysis that left her unable to breathe, speak, or hold her newborn daughter. For months, Holly lay in the ICU, confronting the unimaginable reality that she might never return to her life or experience motherhood as she'd imagined.
Holly takes us through the excruciating process of recovery - learning to breathe without mechanical support when she couldn't manage even 30 seconds independently, rebuilding strength through grueling physical therapy, and finding courage in the smallest victories. The profound wisdom she shares comes from someone who has truly faced mortality and emerged with extraordinary clarity: "This pain is temporary" and "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes it's the quiet voice at day's end saying I will try again tomorrow."
What makes Holly's journey so powerful is how she transformed her darkest experience into a beacon for others. After sharing videos of her hospital journey that went viral, she published a book and became an advocate for GBS awareness and recovery. Her story demonstrates how gratitude can emerge from trauma, showing us that even in our most broken moments, we hold the capacity to heal and find meaning beyond our suffering.
Whether you're facing health challenges, personal struggles, or simply need a reminder of human resilience, Holly's journey will shift your perspective on what's possible when we refuse to give up, even on the days when courage comes as just a whisper. Subscribe, leave a revie
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Hey, hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Pleasure Principles, where we dive deep into the things that shape our lives the struggles, the triumphs and the pleasure of truly living. I'm your host, abhig, and today I have an incredibly inspiring guest who knows firsthand what it means to fight through adversity and come out on the other side stronger and more determined than ever. So she is a writer, speaker, illness survivor and advocate. Her journey through Guillain-Barre syndrome. Gbs transform her life in ways that she never imagined. So, with millions of people following her recovery story on social media, she's the proof that even in the darkest times, there's light to be found, and so, without further ado, let's welcome to the show again, holly Francis. So welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to share my journey and talk about GBS today.
Speaker 1:
Exactly, exactly. I'm also really very excited to have you here today and talk about this topic, the GBS, and I hope you know that gbs is something which is happening in india right now.
Speaker 1:
it's, it's, it's uh, quite spreading a lot so yes, yeah, yeah, it's quite spreading a lot right now. So, uh, I mean definitely, uh, your story is nothing sort of extraordinary and I know our listeners are going to walk away with the feeling motivated, hopeful and ready to face their struggles with a new perspective. So so this I'll quickly start like, if you can take us back to the moment your life changed the onset of GPS. So what was going through your mind when you realized that your body was shutting down?
Speaker 2:
So basically this was in 2011, so almost 14 years ago now and I was at home and I was recovering from giving birth. So I had a C-section with my daughter, actually just three weeks before. So I was a brand new mom, I was adjusting to life as a new parent and I was exhausted and tired and, you know, had a C-section, so recovering, and I just wasn't feeling that great. But I assumed that it was likely just, you know, like recovering from a C-section. I had surgery and so I'm not expecting to be doused back immediately, but I was just feeling especially tired and drained, a little bit achy, almost like I was getting the flu. So for a second I kind of thought, you know, I must be getting the flu, I must be getting sick or something. And then throughout that day, so basically my experience with GBS happened very quickly. So I went from, you know, feeling that sickness feeling and kind of just tired, and then I had a little bit of weakness and tingling going on in my feet and in my hands and I thought maybe it was just a pinched nerve. I just kind of brushed it off and then within a couple hours, I had pain in my neck and then, within a couple hours after that I was having trouble walking up the stairs. So I mean, at the time I didn't think it was anything serious. I just thought, like what's going on? Like I don't feel great and like why am I? Kind of weak? I went to bed that night thinking, you know, I'm just gonna talk to a doctor tomorrow, I'm just gonna try to get a good night's sleep, I'm sure I'll feel fine tomorrow.
Speaker 2:
And I went to bed but I was in so much pain, pain, and I ended up going online and googling all these stretches to do because my neck was just so in so much pain and I just tried to ignore it. But I couldn't. And eventually my daughter she actually woke up in the middle of the night to nurse and when I got up to go to her bassinet, my my legs buckled and gave out on me. So I was at that point. It was like, okay, something is wrong, I'm having a hard time walking. Now I was able to stand back up and, and you know, strengthen my legs and hold myself up and I was just weak. But I knew it wasn't something that's wrong.
Speaker 2:
So I went to the hospital, I was admitted into the ER there and the doctor that I saw said you know, yeah, you're very weak, you're losing a lot of strength in your hands and your legs. And you know, we talked about my medical history and he said I think you may have this rare disease. Being so shocked, like it was like what, what do you mean? I'm healthy, I just had a baby. I've never had any illnesses before. And he's like, yeah, like you need to be admitted to the hospital and we're going to see how long you'll be here.
Speaker 2:
We don't really know. We can't really predict how severe this case will be. So they explained to me about GBS and they said you know Guillain-Barre syndrome and I remember at the time I couldn't even pronounce it. Most people struggle with it and call it just GBS. And I learned more about it and I learned that you know, it's this rare autoimmune disorder that affects the peripheral nerves and basically what it's doing is it's causing weakness and potentially paralysis. So I was admitted to the hospital and my family came there. They brought my daughter there to be with me and I very quickly realized, you know, my case was going to be a severe one and the paralysis spread through my body like wildfire and within 72 hours of my very first symptom. The paralysis had spread up my body up to my diaphragm, affected my breathing, and so I was rushed to icu and put on a ventilator um on life support I understand.
Speaker 1:
So, uh, okay, and and uh. One more thing is like how did you mentally process such an intense experience, especially right after giving the birth?
Speaker 2:
So I mean, at first, for a really long time, I was just so out of it. I was heavily medicated, but I was aware of my surroundings, I knew what was happening. I knew that, you know, I went from being healthy to now on life support, feeling like I was on my deathbed and I didn't really believe that I was going to make it out of there. I felt like it was truly the end. And you know, my family's all there with me and my daughter and I was just so angry and broken for such a long time, just feeling like how could this happen to me? How could this happen to me so soon after the birth of my daughter, when I had never even got a chance to do anything with her yet I live in Canada, so it was freezing cold at the time. I hadn't even really gone out of the house with her yet, I hadn't taken her for a walk, I hadn't introduced her to friends, so there was just so much pain and emotional frustration about what I was going through and just this feeling of hopelessness that you know I don't think I'm ever going to be able to get out of here.
Speaker 2:
I was in so much pain. I was on heavy medications. So I was very nauseous, I was vomiting a lot, I was on heavy narcotics. That, you know, affected my ability to really understand what was going on, but still coherent. So it was just kind of all over the all over the place, uh. But slowly, over time, you know, I started to get a lot better. But for a very long time I was just in such a dark place not believing that I was ever going to get out of there understood, understood, yeah.
Speaker 1:
So I mean, I have to say like it's definitely one thing to battle a serious illness, but to do, to do it while stepping into motherhood is another level of resilience. So I can imagine like there were moments of fear, but also moments of realization about your own strength. So, yeah, yeah, we're saying something. Please, please, please.
Speaker 2:
Oh yeah, no, I was just going to say yeah, it was. It was almost like bittersweet because on one hand, it was so devastating that I was a brand new mom and I couldn't breastfeed, so I had to stop breastfeeding because of the medications I was on. They were putting her on my bed every day to make sure that we stayed connected, and it was heartbreaking. It was it literally just tore me apart to know that she was there and that I couldn't reach out and touch her, that I couldn't hold her, I couldn't kiss her, I couldn't even speak, so I couldn't say words to her. And that was so heartbreaking so it made it 10 times worse.
Speaker 2:
But on the other hand, it motivated me so much because I knew that you know I want to get back to her, I want to be a mom. And so when the doctors are saying, like you know what GBS is? An acute disorder and eventually you are going to get better and you just need to work through this really difficult time, eventually your body will start to regain strength and you'll regain the ability to breathe, you'll regain the ability to move your body again and then you'll get out of here and knowing that and eventually meeting another GBS survivor. To see that you know there are people that recover from this disease and knowing that my daughter was waiting for me, that was just a huge motivation for me to keep going and to keep fighting.
Speaker 1:
That's really really great one, and I mean, after surviving GPS, you had to rebuild, like physically and emotionally. So what was the hardest part of rediscovering yourself?
Speaker 2:
The hardest part was I mean physically. I had to go through intense physiotherapy. I had to learn how to breathe. That was the hardest part of my entire journey was getting off the ventilator. So I had to practice and when I would go off it felt like I was like underwater, about to run out of air and I would be crying and I would be hyperventilating and I would plead with them to put the ventilator machine, to turn it back on.
Speaker 2:
And I remember just crying and saying like I don't think I can do this, I don't think that I'm going to be able to breathe on my own. And they would say you just have to keep trying, you have to try every day. And they told me that it would take, that I had to be able to breathe without the ventilator for 48 hours. And I remember thinking, well, I can't even do it for 30 seconds. And I remember thinking, well, I can't even do it for 30 seconds. And I remember just feeling so broken and just so lost like I'm not going to be able to do this.
Speaker 2:
But I just promised myself, you know, I just got to keep going. I just got to keep trying every day. I got to try a little bit harder. I got to just keep doing it, and so I did, and slowly, you know 30 seconds moved to a minute, to two minutes, to five, and just gradually over time, these tiny little milestones, I ended up being able to breathe on my own and got off the ventilator. And that was a huge turning point for me, because that was this fire in me to it made me realize, you know, how strong we are. I had convinced myself that there was no way that I could do this. I didn't think I could, and then I had. And so now it really made me realize, you know, like we can overcome anything, you. You may not think you can in the moment, but once you do, you're like I, I'm, I'm able to accomplish anything sure, exactly, and and uh, okay, and um, like, adversity often teaches us things that we never, never expected.
Speaker 1:
So what's the one biggest gift that GBS gave you?
Speaker 2:
gratitude for everything. So gratitude for being able to breathe, something that we all take for granted. For you don't realize it until you're, you know, having to struggle on a ventilator, being able to walk, being able to do simple things, like when I changed my daughter's diaper for the first time, that was, I was able to strengthen my hands to be able to do that, to be able to do that, to be able to take her for a walk, to be able to run again, to be able to work out, to go uh, you know, do running exercises work out in the gym? There's just been so much gratitude, uh, for simple things that, um, I, I had taken for granted I miss her.
Speaker 1:
So, uh, okay, and uh, like so many people, uh feel lost. After trauma, the process and that process of rediscovery can feel like a second birth of the sorts, so a chance to redefine who you are. So, uh, that's, that's really great and, um, adversity often teaches us uh things, as I mentioned, like it's, uh, I mean we, we sometimes never expect. But if you could go back and talk, uh like who was first? I mean uh, I mean what would you uh tell her? I mean yourself, I'm saying, I'm saying right, because you have diagnosed right. So what would you if you go back and, uh, you need to tell yourself, so what would you tell her I mean to you?
Speaker 2:
yeah, I would absolutely say you know, don't ever give up, don't ever give up on yourself, keep, ever give up on yourself, keep fighting. There's going to be hard days and, no matter what struggle it is that you're going through, there's going to be challenges and there's going to be days where you feel like you can't go on. And that's okay because that's a part of the journey. And you know, if it was easy, everything would be easy, but that's not life. Everything would be easy but that's not life. And so, in my case, you know it was just keep moving forward, just keep promising yourself that you'll keep trying. Whatever that goal was whether it was breathing again, whether it was learning to walk, strengthening my arms it was just you know, keep moving forward, keep trying and just you know, not ever giving up.
Speaker 2:
There were multiple times throughout my journey that I wanted to give up up. There were multiple times throughout my journey that I wanted to give up, but I had met a GBS survivor who he actually brought me this sign in ICU and it had. It was a quote that he put on my wall and it said courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes it's the quiet voice at day's end saying I will try again tomorrow. And that's just such a profound quote to me that it's like you know what. You don't always have to feel strong when you're overcoming adversity. When you're going through adversity, you can feel weak, you can feel powerless, but you just have to keep promising yourself that you'll try again tomorrow, and you can do that with tears in your eyes. You don't need to feel like this powerful person. You just gotta keep moving forward.
Speaker 1:
That's great. Also, like, like, I have to say this that, um, If I talk about the power of sharing a story, so your social media presence after DBS has inspired millions. So when did you realize that sharing your journey could change other people's?
Speaker 2:
lives. Well, it started with, you know, when I, as soon as I got out of the hospital and realized, you know, like I just overcame this and I got back to my life. It took some years of intense physiotherapy before I was, you know, considered back to normal and back to my old self kind of thing, and it was just like OK. I went from being in ICU paralyzed. I was in ICU for almost three months. I was in the hospital for almost five and then recovered and it was like OK. At the time I didn't think I was going to ever get out of there. I didn't think I was ever going to get back to my life. And now I did.
Speaker 2:
And I want to show others that if they ever find themselves in the same situation where they're in ICU or they're dealing with GBS or their family members dealing with GBS, I want to show them my story and I want to share my story so that they see, like you know what I was in there and I recovered, and just give other people hope. And I had all my hospital videos, that my. I put them all together and I put out a YouTube video of my journey and it went viral. I ended up writing a book about my journey and publishing it, and it's just been amazing to see the response to it, to see how it's been able to impact people that have gone through GBS, help family members understand it, as well as educate even doctors and nurses that are dealing with the disorder to understand that patient perspective. So it's been amazing and it's definitely changed my life for the better.
Speaker 1:
That's amazing. That's really amazing, great and also, like you, wear many hats like writer.
Speaker 2:
Great and also, like you wear many pain, and so it was just, yeah, finding out, like, what really are your passions, what are you passionate about, what sort of things really fill your cup, and making time for them, and trying not to push too hard, trying not to take on too much all at once and setting boundaries, and just knowing you know what sort of things do I have time. You know what sort of things do I have time for. What sort of things do I want to make time for?
Speaker 1:
I'm also got it got it lovely. That's really lovely. And um, also, before before we wrap, what advice do you have for someone who wants to use fitness as a tool for healing but feels stuck or discouraged?
Speaker 2:
yeah. So I would recommend, you know, just start slow. You don't need to just jump in and just go into, like this huge fitness activity. You don't need to be a go from zero to 100. You don't need to go from never working out to working out five, six days a week. You can just start slow. So even if you just start slow, so even if you just start with something simple, walking is a great way to just get into exercise, and just doing that like two to three days a week at first, and then you know you can pick some small exercise that you just slowly start incorporating. Even two to three days a week is better than nothing.
Speaker 2:
But a lot of people think that they just have to like jump all in. So I always just say start slow. And then another thing I always say is work towards goals of like how you're feeling. Try to just look at it like how does this exercise make you feel? How do you feel after the gym? Those are the goals that you want to be going towards, rather than, you know, a physical sort of goal that's amazing, that's really amazing, that's really great.
Speaker 1:
And uh, I mean uh one more thing, and I just forgot to ask, like um, for anyone who is listening right now, who is in the, I mean, uh, the thick of their own battle, whether it's illness, grief or, uh, maybe the personal struggle, what's the one thing you would want them to hear right now?
Speaker 2:
that it's not going to last forever, that this pain is temporary, and one day, there you will be smiling and you will get through whatever it is that you're going through, and you'll look back and be like, wow, I overcame that and you'll be so proud of yourself um, I went out. What I always tell people, you know if if they have recently gotten through something, is to try to uh, look for the gifts. So for me, I mean, I, like I've already said I've I found so many gifts. One of those is that I'm so much closer with my daughter than I think I would have been had I not gone through this, just because it gave me so much gratitude for our relationship. So that's a positive.
Speaker 2:
Obviously, a negative from that is that I lost out on the first six months of her life. I was in the hospital, I couldn't raise her. But I choose to look at the positive, and so that's kind of what you have to do. You have to really look for those. Sometimes you have to dig deep for those positives, but focusing on that rather than the negatives.
Speaker 1:
Great and lovely. So, holly, I mean, this conversation is really, really powerful, and I have to say that your journey is a reminder that struggle doesn't define us what we do and what it does. So, for everyone who is listening right now or maybe listening if holy story resonated with you, make sure to follow her and grab her book, life support and remember that, no matter where you are in your own journey or you have the strength to keep going. So, uh, if you have loved this episode, share it. Someone who needs a reminder that they are stronger than they think. So with this, subscribe, leave a review and join us next time on another deep, real and inspiring conversation on pleasure principles. So, until then, keep seeking joy, keep pushing forward and remember that pleasure isn't just in the easy moments, so sometimes it's in the fight to reclaim your life. So, with this, thank you so much.
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