Disease gives local man new outlook on life
“I will get better. Those other people will not,” professed Weston County’s Shane Ankeney, who took a potentially debilitating situation and recognized it as an open doorway to bring awareness to problems that plague disabled individuals in some of the small communities in this region.
Ankeney has been bound to a wheelchair for extended travel since his battle with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) began roughly 18 months ago, and while he is on the road to recovery, he all too easily recalls the terrifying manner in which he came to rely on a chair for mobility.
“My fingers started to go numb and I thought I must have a pinched nerve or something. I went to bed that night and when I woke up I couldn’t sit up on my own, I was very weak. I knew at that time it was more than just a pinched nerve,” recalled Ankeney. By the time he made his way to the hospital he couldn’t walk and it only went downhill from there.