Postpolio

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by Theory5

How could someone not know that you had polio? Where do you live? I thought doctors were trained to recognize the common symtoms of the dangerous desease and afflictions such as polio, aids, mono, etc.

Apparently, it was and is very easy.

I was diagnosed with scarlet fever and meningitis for several days (I was in a coma at that point) before a new doctor, his first day in the clinic, diagnosed me correctly.

For milder cases, so-called "non-paralytic polio", weakness in just one foot or one leg appears somewhat after the fever, delirium, and flu-like aches & pains have passed. Sometimes (often) the muscle weakness will be so slight that the person may not notice it for some time. It may only become apparent when they realize that they can no longer walk 2 miles to Granny's house, or they can no longer lift their toolbox without pain.

[Theory5]

Originally Posted by freeztar

Theory, it was not uncommon for people to contract the polio virus early in the 20th century (FDR is a famous example). My guess is that lemit is above the age of 60, hence he grew up when polio vaccines were not even in existence yet.


Polio vaccine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ah, its just so hard for me to imagine a world so different but only a few decades from this one. No matter how many times I look back onto the past I am still amazed we came so far in so little time. Now with all these vaccines and medicine and everything else I can't really imagine a world with all these viruses.

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by Theory5

Ah, its just so hard for me to imagine a world so different but only a few decades from this one. No matter how many times I look back onto the past I am still amazed we came so far in so little time. Now with all these vaccines and medicine and everything else I can't really imagine a world with all these viruses.

I totally agree with you.
If I had been born only 3 years later, I would have gotten the first Salk vaccine dispensed in north Alabama.

But then, I wouldn't have grown up to be the splendid, handsome, intelligent, bon vivant that I am today.

[lemit]

My late parents told me the doctors would have made a positive diagnosis if they had seen one more symptom. The doctors never got that symptom, so I was one of those kids in the 50's who stood in line for the injection and later the oral vaccine, not knowing that it was too late.

Yes, the medicine practiced in rural north Missouri was not always current, but it seems I got pretty good care. In fact, my primary care physician around the time I had polio was later head of pediatrics at the University of Missouri Medical Center in Kansas City, so she was probably pretty good.

I'm glad I started this thread. It's good to see people learning about polio. People become too complacent and start to think vaccination might no longer be necessary. This is not a pleasant condition.

I just got an epidural and am still adjusting to that. I think I heard the reason I needed the epidural is that my sciatic nerve might be somehow stretched over my hip bone. Does that make sense to anybody? It doesn't to me, but I don't know that much. Thank you to all of you who are helping me learn.

Now, my leg is going numb. Again, thank you to all of you participating in this discussion.

--lemit

[lemit]

So, nobody knows about sciatic nerves wrapping around hip bones? Is that possible?

Thanks.

--lemit

[lemit]

I have another question.

I know that summer is bad for pinched nerves because it increases the pressure on them. Why, then, does low air pressure make them go crazy?

--lemit

p.s. I used the technical lingo because this is, after all, a science group.

[Pyrotex]

Hmmm. I really don't know. Never heard of that one, before.
I have some trouble with my sciatic nerve because my glutius maximus does not provide enough padding. Especially in winter, my left leg will go numb or tingly.
It will also go numb if I am dehydrated!
I guess the butt muscle contracts a bit?
Anyway, I am more prone to get dehydrated in the summer.

[mynah]

Lemit and Pyrotex, thanks for sharing your stories. There is a lot of information there about polio that is new to someone of my generation of South Africans: My parents grew up fearful of the dread disease, but I still remember lining up at the clinic as a small kid and getting my Sabin oral vaccine on a cube of sugar.

Some things about polio are not clear to me. From what I've read, most people who were infected recovered fully. In the case of those who appeared to be not so severely affected but who did develop complications, when, how and at what time did these manifest themselves? Just how does the virus affect the nervous system, and how common is the condition nowadays?

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by mynah

Lemit and Pyrotex, thanks for sharing your stories. There is a lot of information there about polio that is new to someone of my generation of South Africans: My parents grew up fearful of the dread disease, but I still remember lining up at the clinic as a small kid and getting my Sabin oral vaccine on a cube of sugar.

Some things about polio are not clear to me. From what I've read, most people who were infected recovered fully. In the case of those who appeared to be not so severely affected but who did develop complications, when, how and at what time did these manifest themselves? Just how does the virus affect the nervous system, and how common is the condition nowadays?

Okay, I'm at the office, so here's the short version.

Polio myelitis is a virus, a rather large and simple virus. Actually, it is a family of viruses -- there are principally three types: one attacks the nerve endings that control voluntary muscles. The second attacks nerve nodes near joints and the spine, that pass signals on to voluntary muscles. The third attacks the tissue in the brain's medula oblongata (near the brain stem) that originate these signals.

The effects always start with body aches, joint pain, lethergy and high fever. This can frequently lead to coma for a few days, until the fever goes down. The victim can wake up none the worse for wear; or paralyzed in a few muscles (often in just one limb); or paralyzed in many muscles (often unable to breath); or dead. By this time, all viruses in the body have died.

If not all nerve endings to a muscle have died, the remaining ones usually multiply and thereby regain some use of the muscle. Recovery is never "complete", but recovery of more than half of the original strength is common. The so-called "non-paralytic" polio is where the victim had mostly type 3 virus, and the degree of damage is not obvious until many years later. Oddly, a severe attack of type 3 can in rare cases also lead to profound mental retardation -- almost a walking vegetative state.

If muscles are significantly paralyzed, they are often not symmetrically attacked. Muscles always occur in pairs that work against each other. Often, one will be attacked and not the other. This leads to joint and bone distortion as the victim grows. Surgery is required to reset the joints and bones. Spinal curvature (scoliosis) is common among polio survivors.

After only one or two years, the victim will typically regain 90% of all the strength that he or she will ever have from then on. Intensive exercise after this point only serves to damage more of the nervous system.

About 40 years after the initial assault, the victim typically suffers post polio syndrome (PPS). This includes sudden muscle weakness, joint pain and chronic exhaustion. This is not a recurrence of the disease, but essentially the equivalent of chronic stress disorder. A polio victim, in 40 years of "normal" use, will wear out the remaining nervous system twice as rapidly as uninfected people will. At this stage, it is important for the victim to cut back on strenuous exertion, aerobic activities, and stressful schedules, or run the risk of incurring further damage to the nervous system.

Note that polio affects voluntary muscles. Very odd, but it never touches the nerves leading to involuntary muscles (the heart, the bowels) and never touches the nerves of the sensory system (touch, pressure, heat). So, a victim may be unable to move anything below the neck, and yet will still be able to feel everything, control his bladder, enjoy sex and know when his butt is getting sore. The muscles to the diaphragm (breathing) are unique in the body as they are both voluntary and involuntary. The voluntary nerves may be destroyed, but the others are often sufficient for the victim to recover a partial ability to breathe, at least for a decade or two.

[Pyrotex]

Even if you survived polio -- even if you had a very mild or a very severe case -- taking the Sabine sugar cube vaccine was not a "waste". The vaccine protects against all three types of the virus. You may have been infected with only one, or perhaps two of the types. So, the vaccine immunizes you against the others.

Plus, the Sabine vaccine contained live virus. Its teeth were pulled, but the immunity was delivered by the simple process that the vaccine "infected" you with polio. No lie. It had been rendered benign, and so you would get no symptoms at all. Except for one: you become (temporarily) infectious. That's right, for a week or so after taking the Sabine vaccine, you are "hot" and others can catch the (benign) virus from YOU! Then they become immunized, and can even continue to pass it on to others.

The bottom line of this is, that if you succeed in only vaccinating, say, 75% of the population -- EVERYBODY becomes immune to polio!
How's that for a hat trick?