Polio impact lasts a lifetime for Warrnambool woman

Wendy was about two when she contracted polio in 1945 - a debilitating condition that has left the Warrnambool woman trying not to go out too much in the hope she can avoid catching COVID-19.

While it may be 77 years since she was struck down by the disease, the lingering effects are something that still affect her today.

Wendy said she was too little to remember much about being sick, but her mum told her that when she went in to get her up one morning she couldn't stand up.

"I just couldn't use my legs," she said. "If they stood me up I just went straight down."

They even brought in the boy next door, who Wendy liked to play with, in the hope it would entice her to stand up but it didn't work.

"They rushed me to the doctor and polio was diagnosed. They didn't put me in irons because the new treatments of massage and hot flannels had started then," she said.

"My mother, father and an auntie took it in turns to massage my legs and put hot flannels on me. They did it day and night."

But it was a couple of weeks before Wendy began to improve.

"I didn't need irons on my legs but my legs weren't strong and my toes would turn in a lot when I walked," she said.

And as children do, she "just got on with life" but when it came time to start school the cruelty of the disease started to have an impact.

"The kids started calling me 'flip flop' because of the way I walked," Wendy said.

"That was hard. I couldn't do a lot of sport. I couldn't run. My legs would just go at the ankle and I'd fall.

"Kids didn't want to pick you to be on their team. Things like that I found very difficult."

As Wendy got older, she got stronger and learned to compensate but that meant concentrating very hard to keep her feet straight.

"Even now, at 79, I will find myself sometimes thinking 'are my feet straight?' just because it was so awful being teased," she said.

While the actual disease lasts just a few weeks, the damage can last a lifetime.

When her fourth baby was born, Wendy lost the use of her arms because of post-polio syndrome and it was months before she came good.

"I couldn't hold the baby. I couldn't dress myself, I couldn't hold a cup of tea or anything," she said.

"My little girl would help with the baby. My legs weren't too bad but my arms weren't any good and the doctor said it was because of the polio."

Polio, Wendy said, actually destroyed muscle.

"It's debilitating because you get very tired very quickly and you just can't do the things you used to do," she said.

"It's like you're the forgotten people.

"You can't talk to anyone about it, you can't do anything about it you feel like you just have to try and do the best you can by yourself."

While she did regain the use of her arms, she still finds it hard to hold anything too heavy.

"I even dropped a whole pudding I was going to steam on the floor," she said.

And the last time Wendy tried to make a cup of tea she ended up pouring the hot water from the jug over her hand. So now her husband makes them for her.

"When I go to walk sometimes my foot won't lift, and it just drags along the ground. I'm just so used to it I just laugh. Keeping a sense of humour is important," she said.

Wendy said her Christian faith also helped her deal with the condition.

There was no vaccine when Wendy contracted polio but despite it being very infectious she said no one else in her family got it - not even the little boy next door that she used to play with.

Wendy didn't have to be placed in an iron lung, or have to wear iron leg braces, but she said as she got older some of the polio symptoms started to show up again.

Having been hospitalised a few times, Wendy is doing all she can to avoid catching COVID-19. "When colds go to my chest I'm in trouble," she said.

Polio is a contagious viral illness that affects mostly children and in its most severe form causes nerve injury leading to paralysis, difficulty breathing and sometimes death.

Australia has been polio-free since 2000.

To get support contact polio support and advocacy groups at polionetworkvichelp@gmail.com.

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