Rod Muller - My Polio Story
I contracted polio at the age of 6 in 1956 and was affected from my hips down to my feet.
Thankfully I did not have to go through the rigours of an Iron lung or leg irons and after a few months and lots of physiotherapy, went back to school and got on with life and really never gave it another thought.
Back in the early 1980s my Mum said to me one day have you heard that they are discovering people from back in the 40’s and 50, s were being diagnosed with Post-Polio Syndrome my comment was well it looks like I dodged that bullet.
Turn the clock forward to 2019 and I had to go for a simple sinus operation at the Stirling hospital, on my nose and when I woke up next morning stepped out of bed to go to the loo before breakfast and found myself a bit legless and thought to myself whoa this is a bit different this has never happened before. Hope it is not a Hydrocephalus problem. Yes, I suffer with it. I went home and over a period of a few weeks it got a bit better but then it didn’t I was suffering from lots of funny stuff going on in the lower part of my body so harked back to what my Mum had said. So, I went to see my doctor sat down in her office and asked the question what do you know about Post-Polio Syndrome, reply I know some people who attend our clinic who had polio but personally I know very little about it.
So, the next step was go and talk to my mate John Willoughby who was the Neurology professor at Flinders Uni for many years and after a fairly long chat he said yes, I am pretty sure you have PPS.
I contacted the Polio Australia people in Adelaide and was given the name of Nigel Quadros who was the go-to person in Adelaide to have a proper check-up, down at the Queen Liz Hospital and sure enough on consulting him he said yes you have classic PPS and told me a bunch of things I should pursue. It involved some major changes the first one being the fact I was told to halve my duty cycle which entailed slowing down from running my life at 100 kilometres an hour to 50 KPH in pretty much all categories because as time passes, I will begin to suffer more and more from a number of related issues. The first one being an increase in my fatigue levels
The degrading of my muscles and nervous system that had been attacked by the polio virus things I pick up day to day will appear to get heavier as time progresses. Things to be aware of Karma Rub (a life saver) and Magnesium Muscle eze. I suffer bad cramps, numbness and tingling that can happen anytime mainly in my feet. An increase relating to aches and pains in random places in the lower part of my body. An increase in my stress levels across the board. I am certainly weaker than what I was 3 years ago have installed 3 electric cranes to aid in any heavy lifting and I split my firewood into smaller chunks with a hydraulic splitter and I rely on other people to help me more often.
I was told a number of things I could do to help myself get on top of some of the degradation and reduce my rate of decline was to :-
Eat well not junk food and consume a minimum of 100 grams of good quality protein every day
Have access to a heated hydrotherapy pool…. so, I built one.
Find a good massage person
Find a good Physio person
Don’t let yourself get cold
Buy a copy of the Post-Polio Paradox book https://www.dymocks.com.au/book/the-polio-paradox-by-richard-l-bruno-and-richard-l-bruno-9780446690690.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fykVp0ryy3U&t=10s
Proper exercises relating to my afflicted areas but in a very measured way so as not to exacerbate the polio
Rest more when feeling tired i.e., pull up a chair and sit down for a bit and know when to call it a day.
Become aware of your spatial position at all times so if you have to grab hold of something or you need to bounce off a wall or just plain lean on something for a moment. Don’t let yourself get cold, Increase my sleep and relaxation time. Be very aware of anaesthetics carry your card
Thank you Rod for sharing your story