FLORIDA  EAST  COAST  POST-POLIO  SUPPORT  GROUP   -   Vol. 18  #3

12 Eclipse Trail  /  Ormond  Beach,  FL  32174  /  386  676-2435

E-Mail:-  bgold@iag.net   --   Web Site:-  home.iag.net/~bgold/polio.htm

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012

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TO  ALL  OUR  FRIENDS  --

A  MOST  HAPPY  AND  HEALTHY  2012

A  LOVE  FILLED  VALENTINE’S  DAY

 

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MEETING  NOTICE

 

January 22nd, 2012 – Our speaker will be Doug Golden from Personal

        Best – a training center/gym in DeLand will be showing us some

        exercises we can do from our chairs.

 

May 20th, 2012 –

 

November 18th, 2012 –

 

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CONTENTS

 

From Barbara                                           

The Night the Mothers Marched On Polio                                               

The Polio Experience                              

Smile a Lot – It Just May Save Your Life                                                        

What Polio Took Away                            

Whale or Mermaid?                                

Calmness In Our Lives                            

This Sound Familiar                               

 

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From Barbara

 

Hope everyone’s holiday season (both Chanukkah and Xmas) was filled with all good things and that 2012 will bring us all good times and, especially, good health.

 

Well, as most of you know, since our last newsletter and meeting I’ve gone on another cruise – oops, sorry – two cruises… one on Holland America’s Noordam to the Southern Caribbean, and the second on the Carnival Dream to the Western Caribbean – all of which islands I’ve been to before.  The Noordam left out of Ft. Lauderdale so that necessitated taking a bus (Cruise Connections) to get to the ship – no problem at all with their taking my scooter (the steering column folds down as does the seat back so it goes where the luggage goes), their drivers are excellent and know just how to handle scooters and walkers.  The Dream left out of Pt. Canaveral, so I drove down there with 3 others going on the cruise. 

 

My friend Selma, with whom I normally cruise, was with me on the Noordam – she rents a scooter which is left in the cabin for her when we arrive on the ship and which she then leaves in the cabin when we end the cruise.  Selma knows just what I can and cannot do and is also aware that when I need some help I’ll ask.  However, on the second cruise, the Dream, I went with 36 others from my synagogue and my roommate, although a friend, had never traveled with me before and kept asking me what could she do to help me.  She kept telling everyone I was so independent that I wouldn’t let her do anything for me.  It all worked out though, no problems at all.

 

Now, about the ships – the Holland America Noordam is a smaller ship (only holds just under 2000 passengers) but was very accessible.  The cabin, due to the fact that we had 2 scooters in it, was a little crowded, but not unbearable.  The food was excellent (too excellent), the casino was just the right size and they even had a black jack table I could sit at – not on the scooter (came out $150 ahead), the entertainment was good, not great, the service throughout the ship was superb – you couldn’t ask for anything better.  Getting off and then back on the ship, to do the duty free shops, was no problem – the crew made sure the ramps weren’t too steep to handle the scooters.

 

The Carnival Dream is a huge ship holding just over 4000 passengers – it too was very accessible.  The cabin was slightly larger than the Noordam and, of course, with only 1 scooter, no problem at all.  The food was good, the casino too smoky (went in only twice – one $43 the first night and lost $44 the second), the 2 nights I did go in, I had to sit on my scooter at the black jack table, couldn’t get up on their chairs (they were very good though about making room for the scooter – they all helped me get situated…. But I started coughing as soon as I started to play so decided the better part of discretion was just not to go gamble.  The entertainment on this ship was Las Vegas quality – it was really great.  Our cabin was on the Lido deck, which is the main pool and buffet deck – the dining room was down on deck 3 on the complete opposite side of the ship (our cabin was forward and the dining room was aft) – problem there was that the ship’s galley (kitchen) was in the center of the ship and you couldn’t “walk” (or scoot) through that deck soooo, it necessitated either “walking” all the way across the Lido deck (which wasn’t too bad except for the times it either rained or was too windy to do that) or taking the elevator down to another deck (not 3) getting out and walking all the way aft and then taking another elevator to deck 3.  THAT was a pain-in-the-neck….  Again, doing the duty free shops were no problem – just one island needed a tender so I didn’t go.

 

All in all it was a great month – 11 days on the Noordam and 8 days on the Dream.  I would, however, recommend the smaller ships for us over the bigger ones.  My next cruise is scheduled for the end of February, aboard the Norwegian Sun – we were on the Sun in March 2011 and had such a great time that we immediately booked it again. 

 

That’s it for now….

 

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FECPPSG Editor’s Note:-  When I saw and read the following article in the Polio Echo, it brought back a whole lot of memories….  Since I had polio as an infant (10 months old in 1935), I was a natural, upon reaching the age of 8 and wearing a full leg brace, for the local movie house to have me stand on stage while they did the “pitch” for dimes for the Mothers’ March.  After I got married I became active in the Brooklyn branch of the March of Dimes as the Chairperson for Brighton Beach --- getting Mothers in all the apartment houses from Brighton 1st Street all the way to Brighton 15th Street.  As my two daughters became able to do the apartment house we lived in with me, they looked forward to ringing or knocking on the doors and saying to whoever answered:  “Please give a dime for the Mother’s March on Polio.”  Thanks to all those years of doing the March, the funds were raised for Dr. Salk.  Today, if you ask someone in their 40’s (and possibly even their 50’s) if they know that the March of Dimes was started for polio, they look at you as if you don’t know anything – they say that it’s for birth defects.  All I can say to them is “Thank, G-d”, their children and grandchildren won’t have to worry about polio and/or post-polio.   Barbara

 

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Reprinted from Polio Echo Newsletter, September/October 2011

 

The Night the Mothers Marched on Polio

by Tom Hoover

 

The evening of January 16, 1950, you would have noticed nothing out of the ordinary. It was an average Monday evening in Phoenix. At 6:59 p.m., all was quiet. But at the stroke of 7, Phoenix suddenly became a city possessed.

 

Every fire engine was rolled out in front of the station house and the sirens turned up to full shriek. Huge searchlights came on, filling the darkening sky. They came together to form a cone of light over the city. Almost at the same instant tens of thousands of porch lights flicked on, the whole city was a glow.

 

To a casual visitor all this must have seemed very strange behavior on the part of a normally well-ordered town.  But there was a reason for all this commotion. It was the story of a community responding en masse to a great host of mothers and a community opening its heart in a way in which few communities ever had before.

 

On January 16th, Mothers spread out throughout the valley and collected nearly $48,000 in one hour. In 1952, the Mother’s March on Polio had become a national fundraising event. And that year over $10,000,000 dollars were raised to fight polio. In 1954, Jonas Salk developed the vaccine for polio.

 

On January 16, 1950 a community fought back. Mothers fought back. Phoenix fought back. Shortly, after the success of the first Mother’s March, a 16mm black and white film was developed that recreated the first Mother’s March.

This film was then distributed across the

United States to show people how to organize their communities.  Tom Hoover is the son of Charley Hoover, creator of the Mother’s March on Polio.

 

Tom contracted polio shortly after he arrived in Phoenix in 1945. Currently living in Tempe, AZ, he owns a marketing company.  He graduated from the University of Arizona and Thunderbird International Management School. He has been involved with several non-profits among them Phoenix Youth at Risk, Habitat for Humanity Valley of the Sun and Educational Endeavors.

 

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This is reprinted from the Polio Regina “Polio Postbox”, Christmas, 2011, Regina, Sask, Canada, with the permission of Dr. Mavis Matheson.  Thank you Dr. Matheson.

 

 

The Polio Experience

By Dr. Mavis Matheson

 

The following is a speech that was presented by Dr. Mavis Matheson at the Rotaract Banquet in October, 2011. She also presented it at the Open Forum at our October Polio Regina meeting.

 

For those of you who would like to listen to the song "Helpless" by Neil Young that Mavis played, just follow these instructions:

Google "youtube"

Enter "Neil Young Helpless" in the box and click "Search youtube.com"

A number of choices come up

Click on "The Band & Neil Young Helpless - YouTube"

It should start playing.

 

Introduction

Dr. Mavis Matheson had polio in 1952.  She recovered and lead a busy life until the early 1990s when she developed Post-polio Syndrome. She has published several articles on Post-polio Syndrome.  She is here to tell us a little bit about “The Polio Experience”.

Please help me welcome Mavis Matheson.

 

The Polio Experience

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen

 

I am the face of polio in North America.

 

Tonight I'll try to help you understand the experience of Polio and post-polio syndrome and I'll say a few words about polio eradication.

 

Polio is a nasty disease caused by a virus.  If you haven't had polio vaccine and are exposed to the polio virus you may not have any symptoms for a couple of weeks. Even then you may have only a mild, flu-like illness but if the virus gets into your nervous system, it causes pain, fever and paralysis.

 

What was it like to have paralytic polio?  I was only 1.5 years old so I don't actually remember any details of my polio experience. Every person is different so every polio experience was different. Some even maintained a sense of humour.

 

Polio survivor Michael B wrote about his first night in hospital. The nurse asked “Any pain?” He responded “No, thank you”.

 

Neil Young (5) had polio in the Ontario epidemic of 1951.  “Helpless” the song you just heard was inspired by Neil's childhood experience with polio. Joni Mitchell sings backup. She was 8 when she (like me) was among the 1,205 reported cases of polio in Saskatchewan in 1952 (There were 90 deaths)

 

Helpless (live at the Last Waltz

 concert, 1976 with "The Band")

by Neil Young

Back-up vocals by Joni Mitchell

 

There is a town in north Ontario, (Neil contracted polio in the 1951 epidemic in Ontario)

With dream comfort memory to spare,

And in my mind I still need a place to go,

All my changes (polio) were there.

 

Blue, blue windows

behind the stars, (lying in bed paralysed windows were our only connection to the outside world)

Yellow moon on the rise,

Big birds flying across the sky,

Throwing shadows (fear, pain & the

unknown) on our eyes.

 

Leave us (spoken?)

Helpless, helpless, helpless (how it feels to be paralysed with polio)

Baby can you hear me now?

The chains are locked and tied across the door, (Isolation ward)

Baby, sing with me somehow.

 

Blue, blue windows behind the stars,

Yellow moon on the rise,

Big birds flying across the sky,

Throwing shadows on our eyes.

 

Leave us (spoken?)

Helpless, helpless, helpless. (how it feels to be paralysed with polio)

Helpless, helpless, helpless.

Helpless, helpless, helpless.

Helpless, helpless, helpless.

 

I wondered if the song was too long but the polio experience lasted not minutes, or hours or days but weeks, months or even years.

 

As you lie helpless with polio, your nerves and muscle die.  By the 1950s, there were rehabilitation programs that helped polio survivors to get their function back. Because there was a stigma attached to having polio, survivors worked very hard to appear normal.

 

Imagine your house being invaded by mice, Mice that nibble away at the wiring destroying some wires and damaging others.  You finally get rid of the mice but many areas of your home no longer have enough electrical connections.  To solve the problem, you run poor quality extension cords from the outlets that still work (though they may be damaged) to areas that are “dark”. This is how with exercise and hard work polio survivors used the remaining “outlets” to their absolute maximum. Surviving nerves ended up branching out to control many times the normal number of muscle fibres.

 

This analogy may also help you understand why everyone who survived paralytic polio has different problems and different areas of weakness.  When you run a damaged system at absolute maximum for a long time, eventually things start to break down. After working hard to get as much function as possible back, many polio survivors find their weakness is returning.

 

That is Post-polio syndrome. By definition, someone who had polio, regained function and was stable for 20 or 30 years gradually develops onset of progressive and persistent new muscle weakness or abnormal muscle fatigability (decreased endurance). These symptoms must persist for at least a year. (Exclusion of other neuromuscular, medical, and orthopaedic problems as causes of symptoms is also required).

 

This is very scary to someone who experienced being “Helpless” because of polio. 

 

There are no treatments that can stop deterioration or reverse the deficits caused by the syndrome.

 

You can only slow the process by not overloading the circuits.

 

In the early 1990's, I began to develop weakness in my left leg, I couldn't run a kilometre every day any more – my leg would just quit.  I pushed myself harder and over the next year I got weaker and weaker.  I had to give up my medical practise because I was too tired to think clearly.

 

By the time I got to a doctor in Edmonton who knew about post-polio for an assessment I was exhausted and using a cane to get around.  His testing revealed that not only was my leg weak but my arms were even weaker. I was too weak to be using a cane.  Overusing damaged muscles is like plugging more into those extension cords.  You will burn out the nerves you have left.  So I started using my scooter.  (It was hard to accept that I needed it but it did give me a whole new freedom).

 

When you buy a scooter you need to decide what you want it to look like. Should it be black to coordinate with your Goth look, pink and sparkly for a Barbie look. Maybe cammo with a gun rack and dice. But this is Saskatchewan how about Rider Green with a huge S.  Maybe not. Sure enough I'll be riding along and some yahoo will yell out “Hey, look at that Escargot!

 

Even with my scooter, I was still exhausted most of the time. It wasn't until 10 years later that I went to the Harvest Center in New Jersey and discovered I wasn't breathing properly at night. I needed to be on a ventilator.  That was 2005 and it has made a huge difference.  My mind has cleared up and I recover more quickly from the pain of too much activity. As long as I use my scooter to get around, use my ventilator at night and during my 1.5 hour nap every afternoon, I can get on with my life again.

 

So why should we work to eradicate polio?

 

1.                Self interest – Polio is only a plane ride away.  If you are not vaccinated, you can carry and spread the virus for 2 weeks before showing any symptoms and 8 weeks in total.  If we drop our vaccine programs, polio will spread and I hope I've told you enough about polio so you understand how devastating that could be for individuals and for our infrastructure. Remember the 1,205 cases of polio in SK in 1952.  (Think of the problems created by 251 SARS cases in Canada).

2.                Because we can – Only people get polio. There are no animal populations for polio to hide in, no swine polio or bird polio. We have a cheap, effective vaccine. If we vaccinate everyone it is actually possible to eradicate polio.

3.                It is the right thing to do.

 

We don't have to be helpless any more. After 25 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners have reduced polio by 99%. They are on the brink of eradicating polio, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all. It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions. We, the Gates Foundation and Rotary International can eradicate Polio. Let's do it.

 

FECPPSG Editor’s Note:-  Just to let you know that Joni Mitchell who did the back-up vocal for Neil Young is also a polio survivor. 

 

Also, you may question the correctness of the spelling of some words, but they are correct – it is the English way.

 

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Reprinted from USA Weekend, Dec. 23-25, 2011, HealthSmart, Advice from The Doctors

 

Smile --- a lot.

It just might save your life.

 

One of the keys to a longer, healthier life just might be your smile. In a recent study of more than 6,000 adults over 50, scientists found that those with sunny dispositions had a significantly reduced risk of stroke. Optimistic people tend to make healthier choices about diet and exercise, researchers speculate; some findings also suggests positive thinking has a direct influence on how well your body works.

Stroke is a leading cause of death in the United States; heart disease is the No. 1 killer, and a growing body of evidence shows staying positive may help prevent that, too. Plus, heart patients who are optimistic about their treatment and recovery are more likely to live longer than patients with lower expectations, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center. The glass-half-full approach doesn’t help only your heart; research also suggests it may boost your mood, immune system and longevity. You’re not going to go from Debbie Downer to Pollyanna overnight, but you can learn think more positively. Here are four strategies to help brighten your outlook and boost your health:

 

Shift one perspective at a time.

Pick a part of your life you tend to cast in an unfavorable light — your daily commute, for example — and focus on fixing your thinking there first. Instead of working yourself into a tizzy sitting in traffic, think of it as uninterrupted alone time to plan something fun for the upcoming weekend or as more time to listen to your favorite radio station.

 

Let yourself laugh.

You’ll feel less stressed, even during difficult times. And that may help protect against heart attacks, research suggests.

 

Hang out with happy people.

It’ll rub off on you — plus, those are the friends you can depend on when you’re feeling down.

 

Negative thoughts, positive talk.

Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to someone else. And when a negative thought enters your mind, evaluate it rationally and give it a positive twist. For example, instead of thinking “I’ve never used this computer program before,” tell yourself it’s a perfect chance to learn something new.

 

FECPPSG Editor’s Note:-  Always knew a smile was better than a frown – also, as the saying goes, “it takes less muscles to smile than it does to frown.”

 

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Reprinted from Southern Arizona’s Polio Epic, August-September 2011

 

What polio took away:

Survivors seek the records that may fill in gaps in childhood

 

9:49 PM, Jun. 11, 2011 | DETROIT FREE PRESS

 

Somewhere, someone may have the records. In some file cabinet, warehouse or library.

 

For a survivor of what was once a whispered horror -- polio -- those documents might fill in gaps of a childhood fractured by comas and surgeries, isolation rooms and iron lungs, braces and grueling rehabilitation.

 

They also might provide clues for doctors trying to understand postpolio syndrome, a disorder that develops decades after the virus is gone. It happens when disease-weakened nerves and muscles -- and even their stronger counterparts -- finally give out. Many survivors are now returning to the braces and crutches they had worked so hard to leave behind.

 

Bruce Sachs, one of Michigan's estimated 12,000 polio survivors, said parents today can't understand the fear that seized the nation before April 12, 1955 -- the day a University of Michigan epidemiologist let the world know that Dr. Jonas Salk's vaccine was working. Six days later, the first Detroit kids lined up for shots.

 

Sachs, 71, of Mt. Clemens, who wears braces again, began looking for his records in 2003, about the time postpolio syndrome set in.   He's had more success than others, locating 15 pages from a northern Michigan hospital -- documents that outline surgeries, including one in which ivory was used to even the lengths of his legs.

 

"I think a lot of it goes to the fact that for so many years, we denied it," he said. "Now we all want to know more, to fill in the blanks from something that we tried to leave in our past."

 

Polio: When a nightmare comes back

Dianne Dych-Sachs was in denial until her ankle snapped.  For years, the medical technologist noticed her muscles weakening and her body tiring much earlier than her colleagues'. Sure, she had heard of postpolio syndrome; her sister -- also a polio survivor -- had sent her clippings and research articles.

But after all these decades, could her childhood polio still exact such damage?

 

"You're afraid. You're afraid to go back into braces," the 59-year-old Mt. Clemens woman said. "You become successful, you go to college, you get married, and you have children, and you work, and you give your 100%. You don't want to go back."

 

But the syndrome, for which there is no cure, leaves no choice for up to half of the 440,000 polio survivors in the U.S. today.

 

It's unclear what triggers it. The syndrome can include new pain or weakness and daytime fatigue. It's generally diagnosed when doctors rule out other medical problems, said Dr. Ann Laidlaw, who cares for polio survivors at the University of Michigan's Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation clinic.

 

The poliomyelitis virus is long gone from their bodies, of course, but once-weakened nerves and muscles are finally giving out. Some theorize that to cope with the original disease, the body rewired some neurons to muscles that were weakened or disabled during the original infection. Those nerves served those muscles well for years, but essentially were overworked, Laidlaw said.

 

"It's like hooking up wires to 50 different appliances instead of three. After a time, they burn out," Laidlaw said.

 

As they deal with the syndrome, survivors search for medical records that are a half-century or more old. They've had limited success individually but are beginning to share stories and dig deeper through the Michigan Polio Network.

 

Survivors hope the records provide insight into treatment for the syndrome, though doctors are skeptical. But the records still might offer an important starting point for doctors born into a postpolio world, said Bonnie Levitan of Grosse Pointe.  When Levitan's right hand began losing its grip several years ago and her fingers began freezing in awkward directions, doctors were perplexed.

 

Her 1951 admissions records from Children's Hospital of Michigan held the clue: Childhood polio paralysis had first settled in her right hand.  "When I went to doctors, they couldn't tell me what was going on," said Levitan, 70. "Now I could tell them."

 

Locating the decades-old records is like the proverbial search for a needle, but it's unclear where the haystack moved or even whether it exists anymore because of the many mergers and closings of hospitals over the years.  Plus, state law allows for medical records to be destroyed after seven years.

 

Children's Hospital of Michigan, which was affiliated with the former Michigan Hospital School, began destroying polio patient records years ago because of space issues, officials said.

 

Some documents and pictures from the Sister Kenny Hospital -- part of a larger, national program that was located at the Michigan Hospital School -- were transferred to the Bentley Historical Society at the University of Michigan. Patient records were not, but it's unclear why.

 

Some patient records ended up in storage lockers or transferred as one doctor left his or her practice for another.

 

When it comes to finding records, "some are lucky, some are not," said Sue Hoyt, a staff member who fields survivor's calls at the Minnesota-based Sister Kenny Foundation.

 

Trying to be normal

A return of physical failings is especially difficult for survivors still haunted by childhood horrors -- they were sometimes cut off from their parents by doctors who felt the visits were disruptive.

 

Many remember spinal taps and hot wool soaked in boiling water and wrapped around their bodies to try to improve circulation and relax muscles.

 

"There are survivors who, to this day, can't stand the smell of wet wool," said Levitan, who remembers her hospital isolation room and the sight of her parents looking at her through a tiny round window in the door.

 

The goal as a kid with polio was clear: Be a "passer," said Levitan, a retired high school paraprofessional. "Your parents wanted you out of the hospital, to come back and become a passer.... You wanted to become as normal-looking as possible, to pass for normal."  At the St. John Providence Post-Polio Clinic in Warren, Dr. Daniel Ryan's patients are history lessons.

 

Some happily recall days at summer camps for disabled children, support through the national March of Dimes campaign and kind neighbors. They bring photos. Sometimes they cry. It takes a while, he said: "A lot of them are in denial. They were ostracized as children."

 

At last, a cure

In 1952, fear surged like never before: Reported cases peaked at 57,628 that year. In Michigan, doctors reported 3,912 new cases; 213 people died. But on April 12, 1955, in the Rackham Building on the U-M campus -- at a news conference crammed with reporters from around the country -- news broke with nine words: "The vaccine works. It is safe, effective and potent."

 

U-M epidemiologist Dr. Thomas Francis Jr. had been given $7.5 million by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis -- money primarily collected through the March of Dimes -- to put Dr. Jonas Salk's breakthrough polio vaccine through field tests. The announcement was carefully guarded; the information was delivered by police car.

 

The U.S. licensed the vaccine the same day.

 

Later, Salks' vaccine would be replaced by Albin Sabin's vaccine, carrying the live poliovirus and licensed in 1960. The two men would be forever credited with essentially eradicating the virus from the country and most of the world. The last case of polio reported in Michigan was in 1986.

 

All this was too late for Dych-Sachs and Debby Bookout, then 13-month-old twins from what is now Eastpointe. Dych-Sachs was diagnosed and hospitalized. A visiting nurse later saw her sister limping.

 

Both spent their childhood in braces paid for by the March of Dimes, the campaign created by another polio survivor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

 

 

Now Bookout is in a wheelchair and legally blind. Those and other health problems, she said, are part of tangled diagnoses of postpolio syndrome and multiple sclerosis. The latter -- she's convinced -- was brought on because of her polio-weakened body she had tried so hard to strengthen decades ago.

"Your dream as a kid is growing and being out of these braces," she said.

 

Dan Matakas, 74, who contracted polio when he was 2 years old and later became a designer for Ford, remembers the day he ditched his crutches. He had just started at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, and the young teen left his crutches at home, opting for a slower, grueling gait so he wouldn't have to juggle crutches with heavy books.

 

He has always been active -- using his stronger muscles when he swam or bowled to compensate for those weakened by polio. But within the past year, he has noticed he can no longer lift his stronger, left leg to his bike pedal.  He uses crutches again.

 

The drive that was built into kids with polio, he said, also makes them unwilling today to give up easily on a search for medical records.

 

"A lot of polio survivors have a stubborn streak or a survival streak," he said. "Polio was a black mark on you, and so you tried to be as normal as you could. If they told us we couldn't do something, we'd find a way to do it."

 

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The following was sent by our member, Ray Walsh – Thanks, Ray.

 

WHALE OR MERMAID…

 

Recently, in a large city in Australia, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym.  It said, "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

 

A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

 

To Whom It May Concern,

 

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans.)  They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales.

 

They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Bering Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia .

 

Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs.  They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

 

Mermaids don't exist.  If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis.  Fish or human?

 

They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex? Just look at them ... where is IT?

 

Therefore, they don't have kids either… Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me:  I want to be a whale.

 

P. S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver, and a glass of wine with my friends.  With time, we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. 

 

So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy.  Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, “Good grief, look how smart I am!”

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

From a life-long friend – Thanks, Judy.

 

CALMNESS IN OUR LIVES


I am passing this on to you because it definitely works and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives.  By following simple advice heard on the Oprah show, you too can find inner peace.


Dr. Oz proclaimed, 'The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished.'


So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Tequila, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how good I feel right now!

 

Pass this on if you know anyone you think might be in need of inner peace.

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

Don’t remember who sent this one in – but it’s a goodie….

 

This sound familiar –

 

I woke up,
I lifted my arms,
I moved my knees,
I turned my neck....

Everything made the same noise:

'CrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaccccK!'

....I came to a conclusion:

I am not old,


I am crispy!!!

 

 

FECPPSG Editor’s Note:-  Now don’t tell me you don’t feel that way when you get up every morning…..  I know I do!!!

 

 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

Looking forward to seeing everyone of our members sometime in 2012 and wishing all the best year that they have ever had.

Barbara

~~~~~~~~~~~~~


FLORIDA  EAST  COAST  POST-POLIO  SUPPORT  GROUP

12  Eclipse  Trail  /  Ormond  BeachFL  32174

386-676-2435       /  e-mail  address:  bgold@iag.net

386-676-2436        

NOTE:- Meeting is on 4th Sunday – please mark your calendar accordingly.

 

DATE:            Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

TIME:                 1:00 – 4:00 PM

PLACE:              Red Lobster Restaurant

                            International Speedway Boulevard

                            Right off I-95 – Exit 261– Daytona Beach, FL

                            (head EAST for about 1/4 mile)

  

 

PROGRAM:      Our speaker will be Doug Golden from Personal Best –

a training center/gym in DeLand who will do chair exercises with us

                                                                   

Cost of the Luncheon is $13.00 all inclusive.   As usual we will have a choice of several different

menu items.

 

Please send in your reservation tear sheet and check

    no later than January 18th, 2012

 

Any questions call Barbara at 386-676-2435.

 

 ======================================================================================

 

R E S E R V A T I O N   F O R M

January 22nd, 2012 Luncheon Meeting

  

Name:- _______________________________  Phone No.:- _________________

 

Number of People Coming:- _________ Number in Wheelchair(s):- ___________

 

Amount of Check Enclosed:- ________________  @ $13.00 per person

 

 

Make check payable to and mail same to:

 

FLORIDA EAST COAST POST-POLIO SUPPORT GROUP

12 Eclipse Trail  --  Ormond Beach, FL  32174

01/2012


 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

DUES FOR 2012-  Please take a look at your mailing label  -  on it you’ll see the month and year we received your 2011 dues, i.e., 01/2011 means it was received in January 2011, so your 2012 dues is due in January 2012.  If your mailing label has the year first and then the month, i.e., 2011/01 it means that you indicated to us in January 2011 that you wanted to receive the newsletter but paid no dues.  That’s OK as we still believe that anyone who wants information should receive it – but we do need you to return the tear sheet with either the “Dues” box checked or the “Keep me on the Mailing List” box checked.

          Your dues covers the supplies we need to send out the information packets to all inquiring about Post-Polio Syndrome, any other correspondence we do, and postage for publicity and for the out-of-country (25) newsletters that we send out.  We’re fortunate in that the “Free Matter for the Blind and Physically Handicapped” status takes care of the postage for the over 400 newsletters sent out within the United States.  We network with approximately 60 other support groups throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.  Approximately 30 of these reciprocate by sending us their newsletters.  We receive as many dues checks from our out-of-state members as we do from our Florida members.  So, please check your mailing label and return the tear sheet if your date is due.  We really need your support now more than ever.  Just to keep you advised, in addition to the previously mentioned countries, our newsletter goes to England, France, Germany, Israel, Panama, Portugal, Lebanon, Sweden, Taiwan and Wales via our web-site.

***********

WHEN YOU MOVE -- PLEASE be sure to send us your new address.  Sometimes the post-office will return the newsletter to us with a “forwarding period expired” notice on the front with your new address but most of the time they are just returned to us with “address unknown” on it.  SO, if you want to continue receiving the newsletter it is UP TO YOU to make sure we have your new address.

 

========================================================================================

 

2012 DUES/MAILING LIST

 

____ Dues Enclosed                                             ____ Keep me on mailing list

 

If sending dues, please make Check ($5.00) Payable to and Mail to:-

FLORIDA  EAST  COAST  POST-POLIO  SUPPORT  GROUP

12  Eclipse Trail,  Ormond  Beach,  FL  32174-4936

 

NAME:- __________________________________________________________

 

ADDRESS:- _______________________________________________________

 

E-MAIL ADDRESS:-__________________________ FAX #:- _______________

 

TELEPHONE NO:- Home _______________________ Office ________________

 

Date of Birth:-_________________   Wedding Anniversary:- _________________

 

Name and Date of Birth of Spouse:-_____________________________________

 

Support Group I belong to:- __________________________________________

 

01/2012