With Post Polio Syndrome you can wake up and realize that today you can do nothing but rest and pass the time until another better day.
Post polio syndrome is a frustrating disability. People rarely get polio today. Before vaccines eradicated the threat by 1960, it was every parents fear that their child would catch the crippling disease.
Decades after recovering from paralytic polio, survivors develop new muscle weakness, new pain, fatigue and other symptoms of Post Polio Syndrome.
Disabilities present the human spirit with a frustrating paradox. It’s our natural inclination to strive for achievement yet the limits of disability are real and ever present.
As part of the cure, we were taught to “be all you can be”, to achieve what people without polio could do. That stubborn desire to achieve anything we set our hearts on was dubbed “the polio personality”.
Neil Young suffers from Post Polio Syndrome (Photo Kris Krug CC non commercial attribution)
There are legions of polio survivors who went on to accomplish greatness in their lives. Franklin D. Roosevelt last three term US President ended the depression and almost finished World War II. Paul Martin Jr. was the CEO of Canada Steamship Lines, the Finance Minister who tamed Canada’s deficits and for a short time Prime Minister. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell are famous rock musicians. Itzhak Perlman is a world famous classical violinist. Alan Alda and Donald Sutherland the stars of M.A.S.H. are famous actors who survived polio.
The cruel joke of polio survival is that the weakness and pain comes back as we get older. From the age of 40 onward, polio survivors can expect to be revisited by new weakness, pain and other symptoms of post polio syndrome.
Joni Mitchell now performs with special very light guitar that accommodates here weaker arms. During the last Neil Young DVD, he performs sitting most of the time.
Despite my mother’s instructions to get an office job, I’ve tried strenuous manual work like construction. I could do it but I tired after a several months.
Instead of the easy road, I liked to start companies and blaze trails. I took the last one public and travelled all over Canada and the US but not anymore.
Post polio gives me daily reminders of my limitations. The old can-do desire is there but the body is weak.
They say it’s all about knowing your limits but those limits can be frustratingly close to the start of effort.
Last weekend I went to a music jam and played guitar for three hours. The next day I felt like a limp dish-rag. One day later I worked for 2 hours at putting some shelves on the garage ceiling, climbing up and down ladders.
On Monday, my good leg didn’t want to work. My muscles trembled and pulsed. It took three days of rest to get over it.
Or so I thought when I tried to help putting up Christmas lights yesterday. After 30 minutes of trimming the cedars, I was exhausted. So I sat on the swing and replaced bulbs. Those aren’t the only things I did all day and at the end I needed pain killers.
This is my confession for today I’m too tired again to contemplate any work. I will though, light stuff like hooking up electronics but no more writing or blogging.
Tomorrow it will be better and if not then, Tuesday.
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