Polio, who, me, no I never had polio. In 1965 I was looking for
someone in my area with a
name and research behind him/her to do my Master's in Microbiology.
John Winsser, M.D., DVM ( yes medical doctor and a vet, can you
imagine that?) Had just come to Long Island University, C.W. Post
Center after retiring as the Virologist for the Nassau County
Department of Health. He had been the Chief Virologist for the NY
State Dept. Of Health in Albany.
But, before Albany, he was the team leader with Dr. Albert Sabin when
they discovered the oral polio vaccine. So, I went to see Dr.
Winsser, and I began studying with him. Needless to say I learned
everything about polio.

I received an appointment to the Faculty of the New York Institute of
Technology, and began teaching. Many years later, a student in my
Microbiology class asked me about Post Polio Syndrome. Se had seen
something about it on the news the night before. I never heard of
it. So
I called the March of Dimes. I always associated the MOD with
Polio. They put me in touch with Bunny Schneider, who was the
Brooklyn PPSG Leader. I went to a meeting. Bunny told the Long
Island and Westchester Group Leaders about me, and I began my Polio
101 talk at the groups. The three group leaders wanted a conference.
By that time I had transferred to Touro College, teaching Physician
Assistant and Oriental Medicine students Microbiology, as well as in
the undergraduate program. The three group leaders approached me
about a conference. So, Touro and the three groups held the First NY
Conference on the Late Effects of Polio, and I was the Conference
Administrator. It was a Columbus Day. We had over 200 people. That
June, Touro sent me to the GINI Conference in St. Louis where I met
Carol DeMasi. Next thing I new, I was talking in Florida. The three
NY Groups and Carol's knew me as a non-polio.

During the summers I had owned and operated children's camps. One
summer, about 15 years ago, while playing tennis, I tore the achilles
and plantaris tendons on my left leg. My orthopedist, a good friend,
is the team physician for the New Jersey Devils Hockey Team.
He did not operate because they were not torn through. So, lots of
PT, and about 6 months later I was supposedly cured. But, that ankle
was never right. 5 Summers ago, up here at my country home, I went
shopping with my older son. Just walking up the steps to a store,
both tendons popped again. The pain was outrageous. So, Barry told
me he would finally fix them during Thanksgiving recess, so I
wouldn't miss school. A Month before he sent me for an MRI.
I told him that I have all the symptoms of PPS in the lower leg. He
told me I was associating my research with my problems. When the MRI
came back, he told me my ankle was all messed up, and sent me for a
consult with an old timer. He examined me, looked at the MRI, and
said: "When did you have polio?" I just looked at him. "I know more
about PPS than you do," I said, and I never had polio. He told me to
ask my family. Who? They were all gone except an aunt in Florida,
and I would do that in person. Barry put me into a plastic AFO from
below the knee into the shoe. Anyway, on the train coming home from
the consult I began to think back. I remember being sick, but I
don't remember when. I remember my mother being the March of Dimes
representative in our apartment house, going through the building
each year with the dime cards.
I remember mother, each time she saw a kid with legbraces, look at me
like "for the Grace of God, go you." I was in the AFO for 2 ½ years
as I noticed my quads getting weaker.


A year ago, in February, I was in Florida to speak to the Boca, Ft.
Lauderdale, and Miami groups.
So, I stopped in Ft. Lauderdale to visit my aunt, my father's baby
sister ( 10 years younger), a retired nurse. I pulled up my pant leg
and showed her the brace. "They tell me I had polio when I was
young," I said. And she told me I had polio. She said that she
might not have remembered if she had not seen something on TV earlier
in the week about PPS, and thought of me. Since it was a CURSE, and
I as fine, they decided to keep it a secret all of these years, but
she had no recollection of when. I finally had my answer. That
September I went to her funeral.

One day, the phone rang in the house. I stepped over the vacuum
lying on the floor with the good leg, but the left leg wouldn't lift
and I was airborne. I played soccer in college and bounced all over
the field. But this was the worst fall I had taken. Thank God I
didn't get hurt. But stunned, oh was I stunned. About 6 months
later that leg never made it over a step at my friend's ( a doctor)
house, and I tore the skin on the good knee on the concrete. It was
time. I found a physiatrist and had an evaluation. I knew what was
coming. She put me into a full metal and leather brace. I can now
finally stand and lecture for an hour and a half at a time, with the
knee locked, without sitting down in class. And I hate to lecture
sitting.

Since I don't know how I was effected, I have no idea what's next.
But, I look at it this way. I got away with it for 60+ years. When
I visit support groups and see people in braces and chaitrs for a
lifetime, I realize how lucky I am, and that this is only a little
inconvenience. I guess the hardest thing for me, other than stairs
and inclines, happened during a real warm day last week.
I went out in shorts. It took me a while to do that with the small
brace. But I'll get over it.
I belong to a volunteer ambulance service at home in Queens (40
years), and up here (6 years), and I still go out with the brace on.
I just don't carry or lift any more, and up here, I don't go into the
woods any more. My crew or the fire department bring the patient to
me. And if I have to get on the ground for an MVA, my partners know
that they have to get me up.

So, that's my story. Isn't it ironic that I got into polio and PPS
by shear accident, and so many years later I find out that I am one
of the group.