Dallas Cowboys’ Travis Frederick weighs in on Guillain-Barre Syndrome

The biggest question surrounding the Dallas Cowboys these days has to be on the topic of Travis Frederick and when will he be able to rejoin his teammates on the field. Head Coach Jason Garrett has stated time and time again that this is a week by week process. A term that causes many fans to roll their eyes upon hearing this statement that almost seems regurgitated at this point. However, with this particular situation it really is a week by week process.

During the preseason Frederick was diagnosed Guillain-Barre Syndrome, known by those in the medical field as GBS. It is an auto-immune disease which attacks the body. The Cowboys initially reported that Frederick was dealing with stingers and he went to see a specialist. Usually with stingers, they are handled in house so this raised some eyebrows. Fast forward to Thursday afternoon, the Cowboys center spoke with media at the Star in Frisco about his recovery and treatment.

“It’s a little unnerving about that unknown but I am extremely relieved to know at this point.” – Travis Frederick on finally having a diagnosis to explain the weird symptoms he was dealing with.

Frederick mentioned that there are two types of diagnoses when dealing with GBS. There is chronic which is an ongoing and acute. Travis is dealing with the latter. His body is reacting positively to the treatment so doctors know they had the correct diagnosis and treatment plan as Frederick mentioned Thursday. He did explain that while his body is reacting the way they want it too that he is still very early in the process.

Frederick is still dealing with numbness in both hands and feet. The process as he explained is “a slow process to start then my guess is that there will be a bigger jump and then it will be slow again.” He went on to say that he is in the first slow point in the process.

Frederick has remained in good spirits and told the media that he never wasn’t able to do his day to day functions such as limitations with walking, trouble breathing. They avoided those issues by catching it early. The good news is that Frederick has been cleared to get back in the weight room as he is having to re-train his body as many patients who suffer from GBS have to do on the road to recovery. His focus at this point is seeing if he body can still make the movements that he was able to do before the diagnosis.

The biggest takeaway from listening to Frederick is that it didn’t sound like he was that close to returning to the field. Obviously, the important thing is his health but at the end of the day everyone wants to know when he can play football again. The doctors haven’t been able give a timetable for that much awaiting return. From the sounds of all reports they are moving in the right direction but with this rare case the Cowboys and their fans will have to be patient.

Frederick stated that his plan for this weekend is to be with his teammates provided that Garrett allows him to do that. For the foreseeable future it appears that this is Looney’s gig and we can all hope that Frederick gets healthy and can get back to playing the game that he loves.