I am 73 years of age and still remember like it was yesterday the day my mum and dad took me to the Adelaide Children’s Hospital.
Looking up at the counter, holding on with my left arm, standing on my right leg, telling them I was ok.
Only to be diagnosed later with Polio in my spine, right arm, and left leg. I was 4 and a half years old, I was soon to go to school. The next few months were spent in there and I will always be grateful and thankful for the love and care of my parents and everything the nurses and staff of the Children’s Hospital did for me.
A solid hardboard bed was waiting for me at home. Twice a week trip back and forth to the Children’s Hospital in the kangaroo ambulance for physio for the next year. Mum and Dad used to wheel me up and down Norwood Parade on a loaned hospital wheeled bed for outings with my younger brother Des hitching a ride down the bottom by my feet.
I started school a year later only to be at school for a few months and caught diphtheria from an inter-state girl, who took the chair next to me, I was saving for my cousin Valda due to start school soon too.
I then spent months in Northfield infection hospital. It was a horrible place for me as a child. My wife and I wheeled my brother in law around there in recent years. He was in Hampstead Rehab for cancer may he rest in peace.
I looked through the old derelict building’s dirty windows only to see exactly what I remembered so many years ago. White plastic covered mattresses and black and white striped covered pillows, bad memories and nightmares. I celebrated the day that building was demolished and lay in rubble on the ground.
I was fortunate to be able to recover enough and enjoy a relatively normal average and simple life in sport and work. I completed a fitting and turning apprenticeship, worked with the last company for 40 years, retired at 68 because of physical health.
I built a tee bucket hot-rod from the ground up that was used for hot-rod tours for 4 years. In 1982 I was very fit running 5.6k one lunch hour and 2.8 k the next with 2 other guys. One was a world marathon runner, of course, I could never keep up anyway. Halfway out on our long run one day I felt I had run out of energy like my whole body was sprained. I walked back to work. I hid my problems from all but my immediate boss at work, who I was grateful for his help and understanding and I didn’t lose any time from work except for treatment. I went to one of the top physios who said my leg was wasting away and put weights on it for exercise to build it up, but that made it worse. It was not making sense to me and felt more like fatigue. Shouldn’t be happening, rest, conserve energy and warm pool water helped. Looking for answers I came across a lady called Jan Holden (who I would like to contact again). A physio who had polio and caused her retirement. She was a very special lady and already in the process of looking into a possible later effect of polio. She took her cause and appeared with Ray Martin’s national tv current affair’s program to highlight it.
In 1985 I attended the first convened meeting for polio sufferers and survivors that Jan organised or helped organise at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and I saw Dr. Lee when he was on Blacks Road, Gilles Plains. He was very helpful and caring. I was still in denial at that stage and individually went about trying to recover myself best I could. Years later I joined Post-Polio SA, can I thank Brett Howard especially for his decade of caring help, committee people and anyone else associated with Polio SA for their help and kind assistance and massage vouchers. Lee and Margot in hydrotherapy also for their patience, help, and understanding. I know my posture is of concern to me to and I do try, and for the odd Impromptu swimming stroke help to help me. It might not look it, but I am trying my best.
I haven’t had a reply from my latest survey or understood why most of my body is affected in some way but it’s because it’s in my spine. It’s odd but my right leg is worse now and severe restricted movement in back, shoulders, neck and arms and muscle fatigue. I have x-rays showing excess muscle effort pulling ligament off the bone. Warm water hydrotherapy, massage and carers care help a lot. I have to be careful I can enthusiastically try to do in the water what I have never been able to do. I hurt myself, learn, recover but never give up. I am so grateful to my parents, children’s hospital, guys and gals like Brett, Lee & Margot and others and still feel I am one of the lucky ones. Thank you so much.
My story is only a simple one, on a journey many others like us are on and still learning to cope with.
Find out what motivates you, use it and be happy doing your best.