On reading Jacques43’s advice on body aches
https://mouthshut.com/readreview.php?rid=9340&rating=5&r=1
I’m inspired to share what I’m doing for myself; but first, let me familiarize you with my problems:
1)I’m a’Blast From the Past’; well, how far is that past? There’s a couple of ways of saying it - there’s an impolite way of saying it, and that’s to say I’m getting old. There’s a more creative way of saying it - I’m fifty and change - well, the change is a bit heavy . like so many others that are my age - a little older or younger - I’m starting to feel it.
2) I’m a polio victim - when I was five(1948), there was an outbreak of polio here in Canada - it was said to have started in Montreal. How true that was, I don’t really know. I do know that I was in Montreal with my parents at the beginning of that summer. It was hot and humid - diseases like polio like that kind of weather - they find it very easy to get around from body to body in those hot summer days.
a) Why did I catch it?
Well, you have to figure something - the medical profession didn’t know as much about it as they do now. It was, of course, before the vaccine, but it wasn’t the kind of thing that everybody knew a lot about. All the public knew was that it was in the air and it was dangerous!
b) How did my parents become aware that I had it?
Over the course of that summer, I favoured one leg - my right one. I used my left more, and as a result, I limped. That was back in a day where OHIP wasn’t available. Doctors visits and hospitals cost money! The average income parents didn’t take their children into the doctor every time he or she sneezed.
I slept a lot during that summer. Where normally I would have been avid to be out playing, I preferred to sleep on the front porch where there was an old couch. My mother was really annoyed with this - she thought it was unhealthy for me to be doing that and kept waking me up and making me go outdoors to play. As soon as I could sneak back onto the front porch, I’d be fast asleep again.
By that fall, the limp was being noticed by all. My parents thought I was just horsing around and kept correcting me to pick up my foot.
I was taken to see the school nurse who promptly told my mother - The Child is Obviously Mimicking Somebody!
There was a girl in our school who was crippled - she wore a brace and limped very heavily - the nurse thought I was doing it to get attention.
One Sunday morning, I climbed out of my cot in the middle room, to join my parents in their bed. My legs completely collapsed! I must have put my right foot down first.
Alarmed, my parents took me to the hospital.
The doctor there tapped my joints and made all the cute little comments that are made to children - he told me that I was fooling - he made me cry and I did not like that doctor - Bad Doctor! I said. Bad girl! he said.
’Your child is looking for attention’ he told my parents.
Shortly after that, my grandmother was visiting and was watching me play in the yard with the two children next door.
’Nobody’s watching her now, Lil’ she said to my mother.’She couldn’t be limping to get attention - she doesn’t even know anyone’s watching.’
Nana suggested a chiropractor.
The chiropractor sent me to have the blood work, took xrays, etc. and announced the news to my mother:
The girl has polio.
My other grandmother -(mother’s mother) - was furious. I actually remember this. I had to have shots, of course and I had to have them at the hospital - the East General in Toronto, where I was born.
It so happened that the doctor on duty at the hospital was the same one who told my parents that I was just looking for attention.
Well, I don’t remember it any great detail, but I do vaguely recall my Grandma Guest ranting at him.
Bad Doctor! said I.
Grrrrrr! said the doctor.
c) How did this affect me?
Well, I was lucky! It was only a slight case, and others that had been hit with the disease weren’t so lucky, as we all know. All I really got was a weakened leg - one foot is twisted and the foot and leg itself are smaller. The disease got me from the right hip down.
I didn’t have to wear a brace on my leg.
I did have to wear oxfords(sensible shoes that gave support).
I had to see the Chiropractor twice a week - he gave electric treatment, and regular leg massage and workups. I went to him till I was 9, when he told my mother, her leg will likely straighten out a lot as she gets older.
And it did.
But now? Well, as our family doctor explained it - there’s no such thing as’post-polio syndrome’. Not really. What there is involves a weakened part of the body and that’s the part that arthritis and osteoporosis hits when it starts setting in.
I’m finding it very hard to walk these days; having always been inclined to walk on the side of my right foot, the muscles and tendons have pulled. The ankle and foot is very weak. After I’ve walked a couple of blocks(sometimes only half a block), I’m in pain.
A recent visit to the orthapaedist reveals that I ought to have support footwear. On Tuesday, after the Ortho Doc saw the X-rays he said - right! Into the foot doctor with you!
The foot doctor looked at the foot and called in a guy named Foster - Foster is a guy who makes supportive shoes.
What can you afford, they asked my husband and I? Are you insured for this kind of thing?
No!
Well, what they’re going to try is having Foster make a mould next Tuesday. Something that can be inserted into my shoe, so that I will have to keep my foot flat when I walk.
’Twill be difficult and I do not have much faith in this - my husband wants to have a shoe built for my ankle and foot but I’m fighting it - he would rather spend the extra money, rather than shell out a hundred in Canadian Loonage for an insert that doesn’t do much.
So, I guess I’m going along with it - Tuesday morning I’ll be limping off down there.
But what can I do for the rest of these aches and pains? Mother didn’t pay cash for my bones, so I didn’t get a warranty, y’know?
Well, Jacques has a point there when she says - enough goodies - get some fruit and fresh veggies going. So that’s what I’ve been doing the last few days - trying to ignore those carmel covered cookies in the red can and getting some weight off.
The pool opens soon . I plan to be in there a lot and on my bike - I bike better than I walk, trust me.
The bottom line? The doctors can only do so much - we have to look after our bodies.
Can’t help asking? Why is it that my grandparents got around without those big words like arthritic and osteo spilling from their mouths - can’t help but suspect that it has something to do with the fact that there wasn’t so much in the way of artificially flavoured food around - that’s a suspicion I have. That a lot of our health problems are caused by the artificial crap that goes into our food.
But that is another review, isn’t it?
Thanks for hearing that one out, folks.
Carly:-)