Girl plans first steps Christmas Day

After she was nearly completely paralyzed, doctors didn’t expect Kelsey Fey to start walking before March.

But the 17-year-old is, as her mother says, a typical, stubborn teenager. Kelsey plans to walk without assistance for the first time today.

Kelsey was paralyzed after coming down with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare viral illness, in August. After nearly two months in the hospital, including two stints in the intensive care unit, she still is recovering.

Her feet and her hands still tingle, and she has a hard time holding a pen and writing. She can’t bend at the waist while seated, and she needs to sit down to shower.

It is only after long weeks of occupational and recreational therapy that Kelsey has begun to regain her motor skills.

In October, two months after the mysterious illness had robbed Kelsey of her ability to move, a doctor spoke to her mother, Michelle.

“He told you off to the side, ‘Don’t expect her to walk before March,’” Kelsey’s father, Brian, recalled.

Kelsey’s parents didn’t tell her about the doctor’s grim prognosis. Within a month, she had stood up and taken a few steps. The doctor couldn’t believe it, Michelle said.

Those few steps were the result of difficult and often painful work. The illness had weakened her muscles and made pressure on her joints unbearable. When she stood — helped by therapists and a harness hoisted from the ceiling — Kelsey’s legs bowed backward and her hips popped out of place.

The pain was excruciating.

“I can say I’ve been through labor pains, just without a kid,” Kelsey said.

The illness was nearly as painful for her parents.

“It’s been a lot of wear and tear on us. Nobody wants to see their child go through the things she’s gone through,” Michelle said.

To help her regain upper body strength and dexterity, Kelsey would throw pennies into the hospital wishing well. At first, her parents would place a penny in her hand, pull her hand back over her shoulder and let go, launching the coin like a stone from a catapult. It was a long time before Kelsey was able to throw pennies on her own.

After she was released from the hospital in early October, Kelsey spent most of her time in a wheelchair. Her parents would help her in and out of bed and in and out of her chair.

But she continued to struggle through her therapy sessions. Once she was finally on her feet, Kelsey had to relearn how to walk.

“It’s like being a baby all over again, except I didn’t get to crawl,” she said.

Michelle still has videos on her phone of Kelsey’s therapy sessions. Every grimace, every shriek of pain is recorded — but so is every bit of progress.

She walked for the first time Nov. 8, one month after leaving the hospital and nearly three months after the virus first attacked. She took a few steps, assisted by a walker and therapists.

Since then, Kelsey has improved significantly. Now she rarely uses her wheelchair, except on icy sidewalks and when she is tired after therapy. She gets around using the walker, although she can take a few steps without it.

She plans to walk a greater distance without the walker today.

Kelsey’s progress happened slowly and often stalled, Brian said.

“She always seemed to go in cycles. She’d be out of it one week and ... stable the next,” he said.

“It was a roller coaster ride,” Michelle added. “That’s one of the things I never understood. Why could she do something one day and not the next?”

Despite the setbacks, Kelsey continues to regain her life. She does an hour of occupational therapy and one hour of physical therapy on Mondays and Fridays. On Wednesdays she does warm-water therapy at The Summit, during which she walks in a swimming pool at various depths.

Doctors say she will recover completely.

“It’s just a matter of time,” Michelle said.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.