Sit down for showering. Difficulty with transfers, poor balance, and fear of falling affects people’s ability to bathe safely. For those who need to access a bathtub to bathe or shower, a bathtub transfer bench which rests partly inside and partly outside the tub enables one to sit down outside the tub and gradually slide over to the inside. Some …
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Still Here, After All These Years
Lawrence C. Becker “You had polio? I thought they cured that.” If I had $10 for every time I’ve heard those words, I could sponsor a vaccination program in a village in some hard-to-reach part of the world. That would be a good thing. But polio is not “cured” by the vaccines—it is prevented. There’s a difference. Polio is not …
Closets
Most closets are organized too high for someone in a wheelchair or for someone who is vision impaired. The best way to achieve “low oriented” closet space is to unload the closet and take out all the original shelving and hanging rods. Next the disabled person should get in front of the empty closet and describe where the clothes and …
Kitchens
CREATING A USER-FRIENDLY KITCHEN Many of us arranged our kitchen back in the days when we were physically capable, so what did it matter if we had to walk extra steps or carry heavy pots? Now, however, we have a finite amount of energy and strength, and we need to assess whether the kitchen meets our needs. Take a few …
Polio and Me: An Inside Look
Nancy Baldwin Carter One day I was running wild through the exhibits at the Thayer County Fair in Nebraska, a typical eleven-year-old shrieking uncontrollably as the Octopus ride tossed me hither and yon, winning a kewpie doll pitching plastic balls through embroidery hoops. The next, I was in bed with the “flu.” I was soon to be rushed to the …
High Tech Breathing
David Cotcher Breathing is fundamental to life. If we do not take in sufficient oxygen or get rid of carbon dioxide (CO2) it affects every part of our body. I had polio at about 18 months and at seven I started to have a curvature of my back that developed into a double curvature called kyphoscoliosis. As I grew my muscles …
Not Just Polio: My Life Story
Excerpts from the autobiography Not Just Polio: My Life Story of Richard Lloyd Daggett, polio survivor and ventilator user: July, 1953 My mother drove to the hospital to visit almost every afternoon and both pafarents came in the evening. I’m sure it was a difficult time for them. I was their youngest child, and I was very, very ill with bulbospinal polio, the …
The FDR Bond: How a Little Girl’s Friendship With America’s Most Famous Polio Patient Changed Her Forever
Anne K. Gross, PhD On the evening of November 3, 1928, three year old Carol Rosenstiel, her braces hidden under her pant trousers, her wooden crutches digging into her underarms, stood on the platform of Grand Central Terminal in New York City, a huge suitcase by her side. Her mother, Evelyn, holding her three month old son, bent down, straightened …
Nutrition and Post-Polio
Lauro S. Halstead, MD This is the story of my personal journey to learn more about nutrition. The path I followed and what I discovered along the way are specific to my body, my nutritional needs and my disability. Some of the principles I learned may apply to others, but the particulars relate only to me. I would no more …
Acute Polio and Its Evolution: Reminiscences of a ‘Polio Fellow’
Ernest W. Johnson, MD Returning from 34 months in the southeast Pacific as a GI to my home in Akron, Ohio, I was entitled to four calendar years of a university education funded by the GI bill. I enrolled at The Ohio State University (OSU) and while rooming with a high school friend who was completing his last year of …