I'd wrestle with my kids, I'd do 100 push-ups a day. Now, I can't even play with my grandkids. It hits about 75 per cent of the people who were stricken as children in the 1930s, '40s and '50s, before a polio vaccine was developed in 1955. There is no known cure for post-polio syndrome. Patients are treated with strength and mobility conditioning, electrical stimulation and occupational therapy, said Sharon Grunow, director of occupational therapy at Bacharach.
Fatigue is the enemy.
Like the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race. John Rodgers used a wheelchair and braces after being stricken with polio at age seven. But he resumed walking by age 12 and went on to serve four years in the U.S. navy and work 20 years as a letter carrier. Nine years ago, he began suffering again. Eventually, he had to return to a leg brace and was reassigned from letter carrier to another U.S. Postal Service job.