In 1952 we were at a beach and when I woke up in the morning my legs
were paralyzed.
The night before I had tripped over a curb and I think everyone felt
that the paralysis was the result of the fall.
They had a man take me out into the ocean and let the waves run over my
legs.
A few days or so later I could walk again.
Later I was diagnosed as having polio.
And I underwent a lot of physical therapy.
One of my legs was shorter than the other and as a child and teenager I
wore a lift on one shoe, in an attempt to shorten the longer leg.
In elementary school they walked us to the end of the classrooms and
then we ran to the gym. It was perhaps 50 yards.
Before the paralysis I was always one of the fastest, if not the
fastest.
After the paralysis, I was always one of the slowest, if not the
slowest.
Now I've read where the daughter of a racing driver has come down with
transverse myelitis. I looked it up and it sort of sounds like what I
had.
Although I never had any problems with bowel or bladder control.
I just wonder if before the salk vaccine, all paralysis was considered
to be polio, but that after the vaccine, since polio was gone, they then
called it something else.