The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Today I read in the Opasquia Times the story on Patti Banks' Rotary trip to India to help administer Polio vaccine in an attempt to eradicate this crippling disease from the face of the earth. I wanted to tell you my story and how Polio has affected my life. In September of 1954, I remember my dad and mom talking at the supper table about this horrible disease spreading through Manitoba. The government had come up with a vaccine to stop the spread of Polio, but it would be two weeks before it would be available in The Pas. All the children at the Red Brick School would be getting immunized. I was seven years old, and at the time I had a broken wrist from falling off the back of dad's truck, but at least I wasn't going to get Polio. One week later I was getting out of bed to get ready for school. When I stood up I became like a rag doll and hit the floor. I could not move a muscle. Mom called Dr. Jacobs, and he came to the house and wrapped me in a blanket and took me to the hospital. Before he left, he quarantined the house. No one was to come in or leave, and he placed a large yellow sign on the door to warn people that Polio had struck our home. I remember Mom telling me later that the whole family had to get needles and that laid everyone up for a week. The groceries were left outside on the door step, and our family's lives were turned upside down. The next year was spent in quarantine at St. Anthony's Hospital. I had company, as there were other people sick with Polio too. The worst part that I remember was the spinal taps Ð once a month and no freezing. Today, 49 years later, I can still feel the pain of those needles, and when I see one I shiver. One day Dr. Lester came in to remove the cast off my broken wrist and asked me to wiggle my fingers. I tried really hard, but they just didn't work. The hand was small, and the fingers were bent under like I was making a fist. It looked like it had stopped growing. The doctors consulted and decided to amputate my hand and fit me with a hook. Bless my mother's heart Ð she refused to give permission, and three years later an operation released the cords to my fingers, which gave me partial use of my hand. There is not much else I can tell you about the one year I spent in hospital, but I do remember that my mom was the only family member allowed to visit me. When she came, she was dressed from head to toe in white protective gowns, and all I could see of her was her eyes. She wasn't allowed to touch me and sat quite a ways from the bed to talk to me. No hugs or kisses, and to a seven year old that was devastating, but I had five brothers at home, and I didn't want them to get sick. Today, I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Some didn't make it, and some were left with far worse complications than I was. In my research of Polio, I now understand that it is a virus and that once you have had it, it never goes away. It lays dormant in your body and can cause problems later in life. I will have to deal with it all my life. I ask young parents if their children have had the Polio vaccine and other vaccines that are recommended. If they say "no", I always wonder, "what if". Canada is joining other countries in North and South America to encourage childhood immunizations during Vaccination Week in the Americas April 25 - May 1, 2004, sponsored by the Pan American Health Organization.
