After I had published my first book, A First Step - Understanding Guillain-Barre Syndrome, it occurred to me that the dream sequences described in that book would make for an interesting read on their own, as a collection of short - but impossible - stories.
Thus were sewn the seeds for this publication. The 'postscripts' that have been added are included to assist readers who have not read the earlier book, and who therefore may not have a full understanding of the circumstances I found myself in.
During my seven-month confinement in Intensive Care, on a ventilator for breathing assistance, diagnosed with severe acute chronic Guillain-Barre Syndrome - sometimes referred to in its abbreviated form as GBS, I experienced many dreams and hullucinations, some of which are described in the book. The medications I was taking, the inability to distinguish between night and day, being thrust into an unfamiliar environment, or something inherent in the disease itself may have been the cause. Although these dreams are not necessarily in the sequence in which I dreamed them, it is possible to connect them to certain events or phases of my illness.
Initially, I was paralysed from my toes up to my eyebrows. This did not appear to inhibit my mobilty in some of the dreams though. One moment I was in a wheelchair, the next flying an F16 fighter jet, even though I had never flown before, other then as a fare paying passenger. Except for my relatives, the names used to identify characters are fictitious and used to enable the reader to follow the thread of the story. In these sequences, any similarity to any person, living or deceased, other than in the case of the exception noted, is entirely coincidental and unintended. The Author.