Los Angeles


Wednesday 23 April 2008



Another sunny day greeted us, although we haven’t been having particularly warm weather. More like a nice Autumnal day in Melbourne, staying around 19-21 degrees. Every so often I’ve been seeing humming birds hovering for a few moments, then darting off at full tilt. Never having seen one before, I was surprised at how tiny they are.



We were collected by Richard at 10.00am and driven a few miles away to ‘County Orange’ to meet up with 8 post polio support group members for lunch. Unfortunately, we’ll be missing the real meeting on Saturday, because we fly on to St Louis that day. Our discussions were the same type of thing you would hear anywhere a group of polio’s congregate. The issues concerning post polio syndrome are obviously fairly universal. However, I was asked a few thought provoking questions such as “What percentage of Australian polio survivors have pulmonary problems?” and “How many people were in an iron lung?, and “How many cases of bulbar polio were there?” Unfortunately, with Australia’s appalling historical record keeping on the subject, I had no ready answers, although I assume some of this information is hiding away in dusty archives somewhere. I have not (knowingly) had a lot to do with polio’s experiencing serious respiratory problems – that is to the point where ventilatory support is required both day and night. Of course, many people use CPAP machines at night to assist with sleep apnea. Although there has been some discussion here regarding the use of BiPAP. Where the CPAP provides positive pressure designed to keep the airways open, there is an argument suggesting that people with weakened breathing muscles, weakness of diaphragm, or scoliosis have difficulty actually breathing out against this pressure. The BiPAP is designed to give a certain pressure when breathing in and reduced pressure when breathing out. This may be something to discuss with your doctor during a future visit.



Our Mexican food was good and plentiful and we parted company knowing a little more than we did before lunch. After surviving my own version of “Lost” last night, I decided to visit a large office supplies store next door to buy myself a brief case on wheels. At least if it happens again, I’ll have one less problem to deal with . . . We dropped off Jill on the way back to Richard’s, where I uploaded my last exciting installment onto the website. I quickly checked emails as I didn’t want to impose on Richard any longer than I had to. I don’t want to get to the point where we wear out our welcome. It was nice to see an email from my colleague to say it was all a bit quiet without me. I chose to interpret that message to mean they were missing me . . . Whilst I was there, Richard gave me a copy of an excellent film to watch called “A fight to the finish”. It is a 1 hour documentary tracking the history of polio in America using old footage, people’s personal experiences, the March of Dimes, Roosevelt, and a segment on physiotherapy which featured Sister Elizabeth Kenny. Unfortunately, the copy I watched lost sound somewhere in the middle so I missed quite a bit of information. However, I’ll see if Richard can provide another copy that I can take back to Australia. Even though it’s American, there are many parallels that I’m sure people will appreciate.



I managed to walk back H.O.M.E. without getting lost and chatted with Jill about her impressions so far. She is doing a bit of doodling and will give me something to upload after each location which we will be calling “Jill’s Jottings”, so stay tuned.



Tomorrow we are off to visit Dr Susan Perlman at UCLA, together with Richard as our trusty chaperone. People I spoke with today were singing her praises so I’m really looking forward to our meeting. More in my next report.