Living With Polio

Millions of individuals who had polio are living in all areas of the world. Survivors range in age from a few months to nonagenarians (in their nineties). Aftereffects vary greatly depending on the number and location of the nerve cells destroyed by the poliovirus. The challenge or ease of living with polio varies for each survivor, depending on the availability of medical care and rehabilitation opportunities, and their family and social support.

Advice, hints, explanations, etc., are categorized by topic and are searchable. The source of the material is identified.

Reminder: PHI’s post-polio.org and IVUN’s ventusers.org or ventnews.org features numerous articles to assist in living with polio.

Aging Well with Post-Polio Syndrome: Don’t Let Fall Prevention Fall Through the Cracks

Researchers at the University of Washington’s Aging Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, agerrtc@uw.edu

Falling in older adults is a big public health problem. Injuries that result from falling in older adults are serious, life-changing, costly, potentially fatal. In the U.S., deaths from falls is the leading cause of injury-related deaths in adults over the age of 65 (1).

Aging Well with Post-Polio Syndrome: The Weight of the Matter

Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Aging with a Physical Disability (2012)

Over the last 20 years, the rates of obesity in the United States have skyrocketed. More than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese. Being overweight and obese is associated with a number of other preventable conditions, such as type II diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke and several forms of cancer.

Sedation for Surgery

Lawrence C. Becker, Ventilator-Assisted Living, Fall 2003, Vol. 17, No. 3

After 45 post-polio years of avoiding surgery altogether, I have recently been forced into two significant surgical procedures. One was an emergency gallbladder operation (1999), performed laparoscopically under general anesthesia in a small community hospital.

Facing Surgery/Decreasing Fears

Mickie McGraw, Ventilator-Assisted Living, Volume 29, Number 4

Over the past ten years, I have faced several surgeries including gall bladder removal, a mastectomy and kidney stone removal. As a person with significant respiratory weakness resulting from polio, I often found I had more concerns about complications related to my breathing than most other aspects of the surgeries. I contracted polio in 1953 and have used some sort of nocturnal ventilation from the outset - I currently use a PLV-100 positive pressure ventilator with an Oracle face mask to sleep.

Numbness in Leg of Polio Survivor

Frederick Maynard, MD, retired physiatrist

There are many causes of numbness, but post-polio syndrome is never the DIRECT cause. Polio affected motor nerves only and, therefore, does not lead to numbness or true loss of feeling.

Numbness and tingling are, however, common complaints among polio survivors because of the many musculoskeletal problems that they develop as they become older and because of other medical and neurologic conditions they may concurrently develop.

Opportunities to Participate in Research

NEW STUDY ON AFM AND POLIO A new study concerning acute flaccid myelitis (AFM... More

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