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POST-POLIO NETWORK (NSW) INC.

N E W S L E T T E R #38
Editor: Gillian Thomas         PO Box 888 Kensington
Email: secretary@post-polionetwork.org.au         NSW AUSTRALIA 1465
Website: www.post-polionetwork.org.au        Phone No: (02) 9663 2402


President's Corner Gillian Thomas

You will find the Network's 1997/1998 Annual Report enclosed. We are taking the opportunity of this mail-out to also send you a bonus mini-Newsletter.

This is your last reminder that our Annual General Meeting and Seminar will be held on Saturday 31 October at the Independent Living Centre, 600 Victoria Road, Ryde, commencing at 11:00 am. Please be there if you can. There is an hour's break for lunch between the AGM and the Seminar, so if you find it hard to sit in one place for too long you will have ample opportunity to get your muscles and joints moving. Please bring your own lunch; tea, coffee and juice will be provided. Leonie McMahon will be our guest speaker at the Seminar. Leonie, a registered Chiropractor and Osteopath, as well as a qualified acupuncturist, homoeopath and naturopath, will discuss Strategies for Feeling Less Tired.

Post-Polio Awareness Week is just around the corner, 1 - 7 November. Posters which promote the Network and raise community awareness of the late effects of polio have been sent to all those members who offered to distribute them. If you are able to put up posters in your local community and don't yet have any, please ring Alice on (02) 9747 4694. Merle Thompson's Report Polio - A Challenge for Life - The Impact of Late Effects will be released during the Awareness Week. The Report provides an in-depth analysis of the results of the Survey of Members conducted by the Network, and will be distributed to State and Federal Health Departments, community groups and other health and medical facilities. Each Network Support Group will also receive a copy of the Report, and copies ($10 for members and $20 for non-members) will be available at the AGM.

Polio Network Victoria has recently given us an update on the Polio 2000 Conference. The venue will be the Edmund Barton Centre, South Road, Moorabbin. The Conference is to be held from Wednesday 19 January to Friday 21 January (for people who have had polio, their families, carers and health professionals) and on Saturday 22 January 2000 (for health professionals only).

Our office within the Royal South Sydney Community Health Complex, Joynton Avenue, Zetland is gradually getting into order. After the AGM, Office Co-ordinator Ruth Wyatt [(02) 9416 4287] will call a planning meeting for everyone who has offered their services to man the office. If you haven't yet volunteered but are interested in doing so, please give Ruth a call. Remember that working as a volunteer for the Network may qualify you to receive the Mobility Allowance.

I'm looking forward to seeing you at the AGM, and meeting some new members in person. Don't forget to bring a plate to celebrate an early Christmas at the last Seminar for 1998.

There will be another 16-page Newsletter sent out before the end of the year, filled with our usual range of informative articles. The Seminar dates for 1999 will also be advised in that issue, together with details of the new Management Committee elected at the AGM. Finally, a quick thank you to members Dorothy Duck (Telarah) and Roger Smith (Canberra) who sent in knitting patterns for socks with grafted toes. They are now on their way to a member in need.

Unless otherwise stated, the articles in this Newsletter may be reprinted provided that they are reproduced in full (including any references) and the author, the source and the Post-Polio Network (NSW) Inc are acknowledged in full. Articles may not be edited or summarised without the prior written approval of the Network. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Network, and any products and services described are not necessarily endorsed or recommended by the Network.
Orthotics Outlook - Your Questions Answered

Michael Gurry B.Pros..Orth., M.A.O.P.A.
Orthotic Consultants Asia Pacific Pty Ltd

Michael has offered to write a regular column for the Newsletter to de-mystify orthotics and to answer members' questions. Below, Michael has provided an introduction to the subject, and in the next issue will give an outline of orthotics, and specifically examine Foot Orthoses and Ankle-Foot Orthoses (commonly referred to as AFOs).

Our company has just set up in NSW, expanding our Melbourne operation of sixteen years in orthotic management. It is clear from reading some of the past Newsletters, and a report from 1996 into orthotics provision in NSW, that many members may be unclear as to the structure and provision of orthotics in Australia. It is hoped that by providing members with information through the Newsletter, they will be better informed as to what they can expect from an Orthotic service and from their orthoses. I would in addition welcome your questions and will either answer them directly or in the Newsletter if a common theme develops. I am contactable on (02) 9553 6669 or by Email at orthcon@hutch.com.au.

Introduction

Who Is an Orthotist? An Orthotist is a member of the Allied Health Science team who is qualified in the clinical assessment, prescription, design, fabrication, fit and follow up of an orthosis.

Many Orthotists throughout Australia are university graduates from La Trobe University which is the only course in Prosthetics and Orthotics in Australia. This course now has Honours, Masters and PhD qualifications. Other Orthotists have gained experience through many years of practice, and through courses such as the Veteran Affairs' Course and the NSW TAFE Course.

The professional associations to which an Orthotist may belong are the Australian Orthotic and Prosthetic Association (A.O.P.A.) and the International Society of Prosthetics and Orthotics (I.S.P.O.).

Where Can You Find Information About Orthotics? Your Orthotist should be able to explain the most appropriate components, techniques and technologies available to treat your particular condition.

If you require more advice then you can contact the National Centre for Prosthetics and Orthotics (NCPO) at La Trobe University on phone (03) 9285 5311 or fax (03) 9479 5784.
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/www/ncpo/. Email: School.Human.Biosciences@latrobe.edu.au.

I look forward to your correspondence which may be sent to Orthotic Consultants' NSW Office at Suite 3, Level 1, 22 Belgrave Street, Kogarah NSW 2217.


For Sale

The family of Gwen Tubb (who passed away in April) are offering for sale Gwen's motor vehicle and they would like it to go to someone who can make best use of its modifications. The car is a 1984 Toyota Corona CS141 Station Wagon, Reg. No. MTI 560, has done 121,000 Kms and is registered until March 1999. This automatic car is white with a blue interior and is fitted with hand controls and a wheelchair hoist which is only two years old. The asking price is $5,000 or near offer. Please contact Ross on (02) 9888 5234, or on his Mobile 041 828 4365.
POST-POLIO POST        . + . + . +

Early in September I received an Email message (through the Internet) from member Brian Wilson with the title "Not Desperate Any More". I was so excited when I saw it because I knew what it would be about. I answered Brian telling him how thrilled I was for him, and subsequently "leant" on him to write up his experience for the Newsletter. As I said to him "our members love to hear a happy ending". I think you'll all agree this is certainly a happy ending! If anyone else wants to catch up with someone from those hospital days many years ago, just drop me a line.

Dear Gillian

You will recall the article you placed in Newsletter Issue 36 (June 1998) entitled "Desperately Seeking Susan …", as advised recently a happy result has come from that article.

As background, I'll firstly recap the basis of the story.

After contracting polio in the summer of 1951, when I was nearly 2 years old, I was initially hospitalised at Prince Henry Hospital and then at Canterbury District Memorial Hospital in Sydney. At the same time, 2 year old Susan Scully also entered the hospital. We were paired up and became "inseparable".

On leaving hospital nearly a year later we never saw, or heard from, each other again. Both parents passed on to us stories, photos and a newspaper article titled "Victims of Polio Inseparable". It described how we slept, played, laughed and bathed together, when one cried the other joined in and how we walked together for the first time after nine months in bed. Over the ensuing years we both tried searching for each other to no avail.

In April 1998 during a discussion with you, I related my story of Susan and showed a copy of the newspaper article. You subsequently placed an article in the Newsletter which was titled "Desperately Seeking Susan ...". It went on to say that, although not really desperate, I would like to make contact with Susan and followed this with a reprint of the newspaper article.

The item got plenty of coverage, since the Newsletter is circulated to all members of the Network and a copy goes to numerous polio support groups nationally, as well as being posted on the Network's Internet Website. For a couple of months, family and friends frequently asked if any contact had been made by this Susan, and then …

Unbeknown to me, Susan Poke was too busy getting on with her hectic life to join a Polio Support Group or anything like that. She was aware of the Post-Polio Network and thought one day she would make enquires about it. A close friend, and masseur of Susan's, came to the August Conference in Canberra and took some reading material back for Susan which she, typically, put aside to read later.

On the seventh of September about 11:00 pm she did pick it up to read and help her get to sleep - until she read the "Desperately Seeking Susan ..." article and was suddenly wide awake and set about waking her husband, Peter, and mother Beth to excitedly explain that she had found her Brian.

Susan Poke, nee Scully, rang my home on 8 September and left a message on our machine saying "… speak to an old desperate called Brian …". I knew straight away.

It had been 47 years, you could imagine how I felt, flabbergasted, emotionally moved and excited, more so when I discovered we lived only 10 minutes from each other here in the ACT.

I rang that night when we related our life story since 1951 and arranged a meeting on the following Saturday. On opening the door we hugged for some time and realised that an emotional bond was still there. Although both of us have no memory of our time together, Susan summed it up by saying "it felt like reuniting with a long-lost brother".

I maintain we both haven't changed that much from those photos of 47 years ago!! Susan's mother, Beth, recalled many details and dates of that year in hospital, including the nursing Sister, a Sister Johnson, who resigned from nursing after being so upset when we left her care; in fact she wouldn't let one of us leave hospital until the other was also ready to leave.

My parents, who still live in Sydney, are so excited and can't wait to meet up again with the "dear little girl and her family who shared that critical and character building time in our lives so long ago".

I must say that Susan is a wonderful person with a lovely nature who has not let polio stand in her way of a full and exciting life, while helping to run a family business along with raising her two boys.

Susan has now joined the Network and is attending the ACT Support Group.