Polio Meyelitis is a disease that attacks the central nervous system. The virus attacks the brain stem and kills some of the motor nerves in the spinal column. The nerves die and the corresponding muscles become useless and begin to atrophy immediately. It sometimes attacks the nerves that control breathing. Many of these patients stayed alive with the help of what were called iron lungs. They were huge machines that helped them breathe. Many of these patients had an untimely death.

I was fortunate in that I, like most Polio victims, was affected only in my extremities. In my case, it was only the left leg that was involved. I have led a fairly normal life despite some crippling. Since Polio is now almost extinct, I thought it might be of interest to my readers to hear about what I experienced as a 7-year-old boy when I contacted this disease.

I first became ill on Friday, September 6, 1940. That morning my mother, my sister Arvilla, and I walked from our house to my Uncle Titus Horst's house, which was about a mile away from our home. On the walk to their place, my leg muscles were sore. I remember complaining to Mother about it. She didn't seem too concerned. I suppose she thought I had overdone running. I loved to run when I was a little boy.

Arvilla and Cousin Glenn and I played all day at Uncle Titus's. I remember that among the things we did that day was to eat a lot of fresh tomatoes from a peach basket at the back door.

My Aunt Anna Horst must have arrived there sometime during the afternoon. I remember that during the evening she took Arvilla and me along with her to the Green Dragon, which was a local farmer's market. I don't recall where we ate supper, and I don't recall how Mother got home. Perhaps Aunt Anna took her home. The event I do recall is that upon arriving home, I threw up. I often got car sick, and everyone thought it was the result of all the tomatoes I ate during the day.

The next day, Saturday, I became very ill. By evening I was running a high fever. We did not have a telephone at our house, so my Dad drove into Ephrata to see our doctor, who was Dr. Paul Schantz. He agreed to come to the house after he treated all the patients in his office. It was rather late when he got there, possibly after 11:00 PM. He checked me out and diagnosed it as La Grippe, which was a common name used at that time for any disease with flu-like symptoms. He left some medicine and some instructions for treating the fever. He said that he was going away for a few days on vacation, and that I could get out of bed the day after my fever was gone.

I remember being in terrible pain that night. My back hurt so badly, and I was almost delirious from the fever. My dad told me that I literally arched my back from the pain I had. I understand that was a common symptom while the Polio virus was attacking the spinal column.

I don't remember much about Sunday. My fever must have broken sometime that day. I think I began feeling a lot better and probably slept well on Sunday night.

The next morning my mother took my temperature and it was normal. She said I could get out of bed. When she left the room, I tried to get my clothes and fell when I tried to walk. I could not use my left leg without falling. I tried to hide it, but my mother quickly noticed something was wrong. She went to the neighbors to call my dad. I suppose she had some idea what was wrong. The common name for Polio in those days was Infantile Paralysis.

Dad came right home, and took me to see a Dr. Reynolds, who was a new, young doctor in Akron, a small town South of where we lived. I'm not sure if Dr. Schantz was back from vacation, but I think Dad may have lost faith in him by this time.

I have a vivid memory of going into that big office in his house. He asked me to try and walk. I remember struggling across that big room. Dad said much later that Dr. Reynolds told him he almost cried when he saw me try to walk. He was sure what was wrong. However, he wanted the diagnosis confirmed by a specialist.

He sent us to Lancaster to see a neurologist by the name of Dr. Hammer. He ran me through a series of tests. I remember he placed steel rods against my leg and asked me to tell him which were hot and which were cold. He also used the rubber mallet to test my reflexes, and had me try to push my foot against his hand. Then he diagnosed it as Polio Meyelitis. I remember him saying, "The storm is over and the damage is done." My Dad said that at first they were both thankful it was not Infantile Paralysis. Their thankfulness was soon dashed when they found out that Polio Meyelitis and Infantile Paralysis were the same disease.

At that time they knew nothing about how to treat the disease. While at his office that night, Dr. Hammer put a full cast on my leg. He thought this might prevent deformity from setting in on the leg. After receiving the report from Dr. Hammer, Dr. Reynolds came by the house to check on me, and to put up a "quarantine" sign on our door.

He was terribly upset when he saw the cast. He said, "I don't know much about treating Polio, but I do know that immobilizing the leg completely is wrong." He got out his cast cutters and took off the cast.

I remained in bed and was not allowed to walk on that leg for six months. During that time, my mother carried me wherever I had to go. A visiting nurse from the Lancaster Crippled Children's Society came to our house regularly and taught my mother how to massage the leg. Her name was Edna Schreiber. I would describe her as an angel. She told my parents that they must not baby me.

I received some home schooling that year with the teacher stopping in periodically to give me assignments and to test me. Sometime in the spring, I think it was April, Dr. Nutter who was an orthopedic surgeon, prescribed a brace to be put on my left leg. I saw him regularly for years at the Crippled Children's clinic held at the St. Joseph Hospital in Lancaster. From time to time over the next few years, I also saw a Dr. Moore at a clinic held at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia.

With the brace, and the help of some crutches, I learned again to walk. By September of 1941, I was ready to begin attending school again. By that time we had moved to Akron, and I started attending third grade. They accepted the recommendation of Miss Weber, my second grade teacher, who took care of me while I was Ill.

In 1947, I went through a series of operations in which they locked the ankle so that it only moved vertically and not laterally. They also transplanted some muscles, which never developed. At that time I threw away the braces and the crutches. I walked unaided until 1992 when I began using a cane. I have always had about a two-inch lift on my left shoe and had a rather pronounced limp.

I have never felt sorry for myself. My parents never treated me as a cripple, and I learned to fend for myself. I am grateful for this. It was the right thing to do. I look back today and am grateful that I have had sixty years of walking since I came down with Polio. Many lost their lives and many were crippled far worse than I was.

I didn't realize it at the time, but September 6, 1940 when I came down with Polio became a defining moment in my life. My Dad made sure that I went on to college because he knew that I could not follow him in his trade of carpentry. When I got my Master's Degree at the University of Illinois, he wrote me a letter in which he told me how he worried about what I could do for a living. He knew I could not crawl around on the rafters of an unfinished house. "Well Jay," he wrote, "I don't worry anymore." It was then that I realized how much of a strain this was on my parents.

I thank God and Drs. Salk and Sabin that I did not have to worry about my children getting Polio Meyelitis. Young parents today have no idea what parents went through each summer of the 1940's and 1950's.