I see that some of the symptoms are similar, but it seemed to be more slower to progress than what they describe there, but maybe it was something similar or it started out as that. I don't know when they first started recognizing Guillain-Barré syndrome, but I only recall hearing about it in the last few years (I'm sure it's been around longer than that) and this happened about 20 years ago or more.
All I know is that none of our family have received any flu shots over the years and none of us have come down with the flu, either.