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Life Stage Matters - polio conference


Polio survivors, Mexico

THE reason for starting this blog was to pass on to polio survivors around the world a flavour of Polio Australia's Australasian/Pacific conference 'Life Stage Matters'.

I wasn't planning to attend. The conference is being held in Sydney from September 20-22, 2016 at a posh hotel. The cost was beyond me and the effort seemed too great.

Earlier this year I resigned all polio posts. After 25 years of advocacy (aka banging head against brick walls) it was time to pull back and follow the dream of being a novelist. A new book was being edited and due to go to the printer, illustrations were being created.

These were nervous times. Publishing a new book is akin to childbirth - except the gestation period is generally longer than that of elephants. This would be the 20th 'child'. Drained, a state of slump was officially declared. Then came the death of friend and polio survivor, Dennis Lloyd, aged 83. Den had been chair of the Mornington Peninsula Post Polio Support Group for 20 years. He and his wife did everything: newsletter, membership, social work, compliance details. Then Audrey Donehue, aged 93, followed him to heaven. Auds, known as the Dragon among us for her feisty education about polio of health professionals, had polio in 1929. her story was extraordinary. An obituary had to be written.

So, the novelist was drawn back into the polio world, taking on some of Den's tasks, drawn back into helping with Polio Day 2016, a celebration of 60 years since the Salk vaccine was introduced to our state of Victoria.

While committee posts had been shed, including a new board position for Polio Australia, the Facebook page Post Polio Universal was maintained. Evangelist for social media with integrity, this was my baby to provide information about post polio syndrome to survivors in home languages in countries where support is minimal. It came about this way:

In 2009 an international polio retreat and conference was held at Warm Springs, Georgia, USA - Living with Polio in the 21st c. Had to go and knew that ways and means would appear. They did. It was amazing. Most moving of all was Ann Lee Hussey's presentation on polio in the Third World. I left her talk in tears - why should children and adults be living on the street, moving around on skateboards if lucky, just because they had polio like me?

Anyhow, there are now several Facebook pages dedicated to polio discussion and support. Some posts are over the top. It doesn't take long to discern which are the sane people genuinely trying to help. One such friend, under one of my many seascapes asked if I was going to the Sydney conference. The reply was as described above. Message came later explaining that owing to her husband's untimely death she had pulled back from everything and couldn't cope with the long flights, but wanted to sponsor someone. Could that be me?

Could it? Could this opportunity be used to provide latest information to all those people who daren't even dream of going?

After all, 50 years of reporting, watching, listening, assessing, photographing, drawing and dreaming must still be useful to fellow polio survivors somehow. So the answer was yes. The cost was added, money sent. Extra funds for needs like transport and food also materialised from other polio friends and from our support group.

The journey begins on Monday. Reports, images and ideas will follow, if the technicalities of blogging are grasped sufficiently well. Will there be a similar thunderbolt of understanding as there was at Warm Springs?

Hope not : emotions from that one still are raw.

For more information on the conference:

https://www.poliohealth.org.au/polio-life-stage-matters

The aim of the Conference is to exchange knowledge about the diagnosis and treatment of the post-polio condition in different age groups to best preserve functioning throughout life.

The Conference will provide sessions for polio survivors and health care providers, emphasising research results and gold standard evidence-based clinical practice. Since care for polio survivors involves many different disciplines, the Conference will target professionals in the fields of rehabilitation medicine, virology, neurology, orthopaedic surgery, allied health, and students in these areas.

International speakers:

  • Merete Bertelsen (Denmark / Physiotherapist)

  • Dr Kristian Borg (Sweden / Rehab Specialist)

  • Dr William DeMayo (USA / Physiatrist)

  • Dr Marny Eulberg (USA / Retired Medical Doctor)

  • Joan Headley (USA / Director, Post-Polio Health International)

  • Dr Lise Kay (Denmark / Urologist)

  • Marmaduke Loke (USA / Orthotist)

  • Dr Stephanie Machell (USA / Psychologist)

  • Dr Frans Nollet (The Netherlands / Rehab Specialist) – hosted the 2014 European Post-Polio Conference

  • Dr Antonio Toniolo (Italy / Virologist)

  • Dr Carol Vandenakker-Albanese (USA / Physiatrist)

Australian Speakers: all are members of Polio Australia’s Clinical Advisory Group

  • Bernard Badorrek (NSW / Orthotist)

  • Professor Robert Booy (NSW / Immunisation Research)

  • Ann Buchan (SA / Neurophysiotherapist)

  • Anne Duncan (Vic / Respiratory Clinical Nurse Consultant)

  • Dr Stephen de Graaff (Vic / Rehabilitation Physician)

  • Gnanaletchumy Jegasothy (Jega) (WA / Retired Physiotherapist)

  • Dr Helen Mackie (NSW / Rehabilitation Physician)

  • Melissa McConaghy (NSW / Neurophysiotherapist)

  • Dr Peter Nolan (Qld / General Physician)

  • Darren Pereira (Vic / Orthotist)

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