My Disability

(This subject comes last because I am NOT my disability!)

Post-Polio Syndrome/Late Effects of Polio

I contracted the Bulbar form of poliomyelitis (polio) in 1961, aged 4. While I always had a very slight limp and never attained much in field sports, as I never received any form of physiotherapy (due to my apparent comlpete recovery), nobody in my family ever thought much more about it in the ensuing years. Unfortunately, it has transpired that polio doesn't let go so easily! Some years back, an accident caused some harm to my back and left leg, not the first such incident. This time, however, I simply didn't get back to fitness or mobility. In fact, hindsight demonstrated that my recovery time had been lengthening after each such accident, many of which were difficult to find a cause for, or seemed to have truly ridiculous causes. A period of physiotherapy followed, which, after an initial slightimprovement, ended up causing me to suffer another drop in mobility. I now know that the improvement was possible because I was unable to really push my body. Once I'd improved, however, I could and that led to overdoing the exercises! I'd done exactly what I shouldn't have.

I now have great difficulty walking more than a few very slow yards, always with a walking stick, and therefore have to use either a wheelchair or a scooter. There are good days, mostly in the Summer, but many more bad ones. Pain is a natural feature, but I've finally learnt to handle that with only the minimum input from medication. Since 2009, however, my pain levels have spiralled and now often achieve levels that are intolerable. In some respects, my disability is hardest of all on Jenny, to whom I owe so very, very much!

This tale is far from unique, and is certainly far less than many polio sufferers have had to put up with. PPS/LEP is still "new" (relatively) and little understood except by a few. Considering that people are still contracting polio in many parts of the world, despite the ongoing campaign to eradicate it, we won't be the last to suffer the consequences that nobody predicted.