New breathing problems in aging polio survivors can be insidious and often not recognized by either polio survivors or health care professionals. Individuals who used an iron lung, or barely escaped one, during the acute phase should be aware of potential problems to avoid underventilation and possible respiratory failure. Those survivors who did not need ventilatory assistance during the acute …
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Pulmonary Function Tests
Pulmonary function testing can be done in a pulmonary function laboratory. Simpler tests can also be done in a physician’s office or in the home. Testing most often is used to identify airflow abnormality, reduced lung volume (restrictive abnormality), diffusing capacity changes (as in interstitial disease), and blood gas abnormality (too much carbon dioxide, too little oxygenation). The following tests …
Swallowing Difficulty and the Late Effects of Polio
Barbara C. Sonies, PhD, CCC, BRS-S, College Park, Maryland A major polio epidemic in the mid-20th century left many survivors with a wide variety of physical limitations including problems swallowing foods. Many persons with swallowing problems also had original bulbar signs of polio including difficulty breathing, clearing the throat, speaking and singing. Some persons however, had no overt signs of …
Pflex® (my new friend) and More and Physician Response
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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