By Joseph F. Cuny

Jayne Lee Cuny nee Childers was born in Rosenberg, Oregon in 1937. She was very active both at home and school. Jayne lived and worked on several ranches, carrying calves, moving irrigation pipes, throwing hay bales onto trucks, etc. Her high schools sports included girl’s basketball and volleyball.

With such an active background she was surprised when, for no apparent reason, began to stumble and fall while simply walking. This began around 1988. Since I, her husband, was a civil servant we belonged to one of the best HMO’s and had access to highly qualified specialists. Unfortunately, after many tests, they could find nothing wrong that would cause this highly apparent problem.

Within several years we realized she was dragging her right foot. She had to watch carefully or she would trip over a rug or even the raised jam in a doorway! About the same time her posture changed so radically that she leaned forward, bending at the waist. She also had far less stamina and had to begin scheduling her day so that she would not get too physically tired by the evening. With these new symptoms the specialists were to identify the problem; it was all in her head! Of course, this did not really help r resolve the physical problems. By the mid-nineties she had to lay down for several hours in the early afternoon, otherwise she could not walk by evening. Her back problem became severe enough that she had to crawl up stairs and, if she fell, had to crawl to a chair or bed in order to pull herself up. She also began to have difficulty in swallowing.

Then, in about 1995, a friend told her about a meeting where, as a practicing hypnotherapist, he was a speaker. This was South Bay Post Polio Support Group of Torrance, California. At his suggestion (non-hypnotic), she contacted the group and attended their next meeting. What an eye-opener!

Physically she was in much better condition than most of the members of the group. Many of them were using canes, crutches, and wheelchairs. More importantly, from a personal viewpoint, most of the members had experienced symptoms similar to her own. Also, although she had not considered it a factor, she was a polio survivor. The commonality of symptoms included the occasional difficulty with swallowing, the loss of stamina, and selective loss of muscle control.

Naturally we wanted to update her hazy memory of an incident with polio. Unfortunately her parents denied, or least did not remember any case of polio. In talking with various other relatives we finally reached an uncle who remembered. He also had a diary from Jayne's grandmother, a diary with a passing comment that Jayne went to the hospital and was diagnosed as having polio!

It turns out that there was a major outbreak in the Eugene/Springfield area of Oregon in 1943 where Jayne was living at the time. It was now confirmed that she had a mild case of polio that primarily affected her right leg with some complications in the area of her back. By the early nineties some medical researchers were beginning to recognize a connection between polio and physical problems, three or more decades later. Named variously the late effects of polio, "the post polio syndrome" or simply "post polio", it seems that the polio virus immobilizes affected voluntary motor neurons. The nerves can no longer tell the muscles what to do. The "cure" occurs because a neighboring neuron takes over from the inactivated neuron. It is believed that this mechanism is responsible for continuing muscle activation as various neurons die off in old age.

Now, in 1988, Jayne has reached the stage where any of her walking must be done in the morning, and that is limited to about a block. She often uses a cane in the afternoon, even after resting. It takes special effort to raise the right foot over a curb, and entering an automobile requires using her hand to lift that foot into the car. Fortunately she had a mild case of polio therefore her major problem is with stamina and the right leg. She has reason to hope, whereas I believe, that her deterioration is slowing down. Unlike many others who have gone back into iron lungs, she will probably be able to get around with a cane and will not even need a wheelchair. This lack of mobility will not be too crucial because her two major pastimes are reading and doing a form of Japanese needlework called Bunka.