Carol Wallace, MEd, Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Austin, Texas I contracted polio in 1951 at age 5. Acute and rehabilitation hospitalization totaled two-and-a-half years with six months of iron lung treatment. Both my upper extremities and are paralyzed with only partial and weak right-hand motor function. As an adult, my forced vital capacity averages 48 percent. I require noninvasive mechanical ventilation …
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Sarcopenia and post-polio muscle atrophy
Frederick Maynard, MD, retired physiatrist Sarcopenia is a descriptive term for reduced muscle mass and is observed in aging people. While there is undoubtedly a “genetic programming” component to age-related sarcopenia, much of it is related to the reduced activity levels that are common among older people for many reasons and that result in disuse atrophy of muscle. There is …
Learning and Sharing Polio’s Legacy
Jean Graber, Central Kansas Polio Survivors Group Presented at Promoting Healthy Ideas: PHI’s 11th International Conference, June 2014 Legacy means “that which is handed down.” We are the last major group of survivors to have personally experienced the effects of polio. The fear and uncertainty of the future was very real to us and our families. And yet, nearly everyone …
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technology
Daniel J. Wilson, PhD, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania I have now been struggling with the effects of post-polio syndrome for nearly twenty years. It first appeared as a weakness in my right leg, the one most affected by polio, in 1987. Over the ensuing two decades, the leg has gotten weaker and I began to have breathing problems at night. …