Sufjan Stevens Has Rare Auto-Immune Disease, Reveals He’s Learning to Walk Again and in ‘Intensive’ Physical Therapy

variety.com:

Steven J. Horowitz Indie singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens has revealed that he is learning how to walk again after being diagnosed with the rare Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological disorder where the body’s immune system attacks a portion of the peripheral nervous system.

In a lengthy post on Tumblr, his social media platform of choice, Stevens explained that he’s been out of the promotional cycle for his upcoming album “Javelin,” releasing Oct.

6 via Asthmatic Kitty, because he’s been in the hospital undergoing “intense” physical therapy to regain control over his body. “I’m very excited about having new music to share, but I just wanted to let you know that one of the reasons why I haven’t been able to participate in the press and promotion leading up to the release of Javelin is bc I am in the hospital,” he wrote in the post, including a picture of himself in the hospital. “Last month I woke up one morning and couldn’t walk.

My hands, arms and legs were numb and tingling and I had no strength, no feeling, no mobility. My brother drove me to the ER and after a series of tests—MRIs, EMGs, cat scans, X-rays, spinal taps (!), echo-cardiograms, etc.—the neurologists diagnosed me with an auto immune disorder called Guillian-Barre Syndrome.