Rufus Edmisten is doing better.

The former secretary of state stopped to chat with reporters on his way into the Bill Clinton fundraiser at Brier Creek this evening.

He has been suffering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a nerve disorder that can leave you partially paralyzed. But the only visible effect was a certain raspy edge to his voice.

Told he looked better, Edmisten was quick with a retort: "I'd hate to have to go through all of that just to be told I'm looking good."

He then added that he had business to attend to.

"I'm here to see my friend, the president," he said, smiling. "I want to tell him thank you for a lot of things." 

Rufus Edmisten, an institution in Tar Heel politics, visited home Wednesday, after spending a couple of weeks battling Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

The former secretary of state and former attorney general has been at WakeMed receiving treatment for the disorder which attacks the body’s immune system, leaving a person weak in the legs and arms, Rob Christensen reports.

"It makes you wobbly," said Linda Edmisten, his wife. "The nerves have to heal themselves. The signals sent to the feet are not quite getting there."

Edmisten, who is now an attorney and lobbyist, has been receiving immunoglobulin therapy.

This is the same disease that struck actor Andy Griffith in 1982. Edmisten said her husband took courage in fighting his disease after reading an essay Griffith wrote on the subject.

"It's completely curable," Linda Edmisten said. "Over the last 25 years since Andy Griffith's battle, they have come up with a therapy to knock this out."

Edmisten, who was initially diagnosed with the disease on Aug. 24, still has a week or more physical therapy at the hospital before he can return home permanently, she said.