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Inspiring Voices - L. Christianson Linda

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60 pages

English

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As a six-month-old infant, Linda Christianson was diagnosed with poliomyelitis, a highly contagious disease that crippled thousands of children and adults before a vaccine became available in 1953. In her memoir, she now shares the intimate story of her struggle with the disease and of learning to approach her life in as normal a way as possible. She details the struggles that she faced growing up and the challenges that she handles each day of her life. Because she contracted polio at such a young age, Linda was never able to enjoy the carefree childhood of skipping, dancing, and jumping that other children, including her sister, were able to experience. She had to learn how to live with her disease and to carve out a productive life for herself. Today, she approaches tasks with planning and much forethought. She works within the limitations of her disease but still finds joy and accomplishment in each day. All the Steps I Have Taken presents the chronicle of her life, which has given her a magnificent family, a superlative set of friends with whom she shares her life, and her beloved home. a remarkably moving story of one womans courage and resilience. It is a real inspiration for us all.Barb BlomeAnyone who has never been stricken with polio will give thanks for what they have been spared, yet may wonder why another is not so lucky. This story makes one realize how God works in their life through their adversity. It brings back the footprints in the sand quote during your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you A true inspiration.Vikki Wacek

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Publié par	Inspiring Voices
Date de parution	07 août 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781462402335
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0240€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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All the Steps I Have Taken
Then and Now

Linda L. Christianson

Copyright © 2012 Linda L. Christianson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Inspiring Voices books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

Inspiring Voices
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.inspiringvoices.com
1-(866) 697-5313

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4624-0234-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-0233-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012912268

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 08/03/2012
Contents
Preface
Lifeline and Headlines
My Story
Footsteps and Braces
Steps as a Daughter
Steps as a Registered Dental Assistant: My Career
Steps to Being a Sibling
Responses from Siblings
Steps to Becoming a Wife
Steps to Being a Mother
Camp Courage
History of Mayo Clinic
History of Gillette State Hospital for Crippled Children
Disadvantages and Advantages of living with physical limitations
Riding My Bike
End Polio Now
My Last Steps
Children’s and Husband’s Responses
Closing
Epilogue
Special Thanks
Glossary

Dedicated to my family:
Nolan
Tonya
Bob
Aaron
Jessie
Lianna
Travis
Cody
Emma
Ryan
Cole
Anika
Cade
Addison
Aden
Their support has always been there for me.
Preface
We all have adjustments and situations that we must live with. This narrative describes the adjustments that shaped the person I am today.
As an infant, six months old, I was diagnosed with poliomyelitis, a highly contagious disease that crippled thousands of children and adults before a vaccine became available in 1953. My parents never stopped me from attempting challenges that came my way, and I will always be grateful to them. I am very appreciative of my wonderful husband for choosing me with my limitation. We have journeyed together for forty-three wonderful years. My life has been a voyage that has given me a magnificent family, superlative set of friends with whom I share my life, and a home I can be devoted to and care for. I have become committed to my small rural country church, Red Oak Grove Lutheran Church, near Austin, Minnesota. This church family has nurtured and prayed for me my entire life. I am grateful for a forty-two-year career as a registered dental assistant. A career that was gratifying and rewarding .
Few people today are aware of polio. They may never cross paths with someone who has had it, someone who has been forced to spend his or her life trying to be as normal as possible and build a life worth living. Polio made me a very determined and strong-willed person, and I will share with you the journey that gave me much happiness and success.
At this time of the morning, I’m not sure what the day has in store for me. It is still dark outside, and I hear no wind, so perhaps no storm is brewing. I’ll just have to wait and see. The crutches are there against the bedroom wall, just where I put them last evening as I went to bed. It hasn’t always been this way. I still remember the days when I could get along as a more normal person, but that is changing more quickly than I'd like to admit. It makes me appreciate what I can do and continue to do each day of my life. One of the things polio sufferers were taught early on was to be as normal as possible. For many that was a difficult task. For me contracting polio at such a young age made it easier to be normal, because the way I was seemed normal to me. I never knew any other way of getting around. The crutches get me to the laundry room to sort and start the laundry, and then to the kitchen to start the coffee. After I’ve read my Thomas Kinkade devotional reading for the day, I am ready to move forward and make my day the best it can be.
I’ll start All the Steps I Have Taken with a quotation from Guidepost , a wonderful magazine my mother-in-law introduced me to when my husband and I were married. She had been enjoying the magazine for many years and gave me my first subscription. I have continued to get pleasure from and share all the finished magazines with friends. The quotation from a Guidepost magazine column “The Up Side of Today’s Positive Thinkers”: “God rarely makes our fears disappear. Instead, he asks us to be strong and take courage. Courage is not the absence of fear. You could say that without fear, you can’t have genuine courage.” I have faced many situations in my lifetime that have led me to experience fear, and these have helped me to be more courageous.
The medical name for the disease is anterior poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis. It is a disease caused by a virus that can be either inhaled or swallowed. Polio may seem at first like a number of other diseases that start with a fever, headache, fatigue, and sore throat. In many cases, the disease never goes beyond these first symptoms. Sometimes it continues, and certain muscles become weak; eventually, the virus reaches the brain and spinal cord, destroying the anterior horn cells of the central nervous system and thus paralyzing the muscles. Sometimes patients were paralyzed to the extent that they could breathe only with the help of a mechanical ventilator or “iron lung.” I was fortunate; the only connection I had to an iron lung was that I saw them in hospital rooms and felt so sorry for the patients who were in them.
Poliomyelitis is derived from two Greek words: polios , meaning, “gray” and myelos , meaning, “matter.” These words refer to specific parts of the brain and spinal cord: nerve cells that send impulses to muscle cells. These cells have a darker appearance than other parts of the nervous system, appearing gray in color. These cells are clustered in the front half of the spinal cord and that is where the name anterior poliomyelitis comes from. A virus is a small organism or living thing that multiplies when inside a living cell. It is the virus that is able to infect and damage these nerve cells, causing them to not activate the muscle cells. Weakness or paralysis is the end result. Polio usually afflicts children and was once one of the most feared diseases. Polio is not new. Polio deformities were drawn on cave walls in the Middle Ages, portraying the weakness the disease caused.
Since three different kinds of poliovirus exist, a vaccine was needed that would protect against all three strains. In 1953, a vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk and his colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh became available. Dr. Salk began field trials of his vaccine, which was made from individual strains of poliovirus that had been killed by formalin. This was an injected vaccine, or a shot. It was very effective, and the number of polio cases was reduced drastically. A notable scientist, John Enders, and his team discovered how to grow poliovirus in test tubes a few years before the polio vaccine was discovered. Enders received the Nobel Prize given for polio research in 1954. In 1961, Dr. Albert Sabin, a Russian, developed a second vaccine, which could be taken by mouth. Though living, the ability of the viruses to cause illness had been removed. This vaccine replaced the Salk vaccine and was given in doctors’ offices and school lunchrooms across the United States. I remember going to our cafeteria at school in seventh grade and lining up for the oral vaccine. I have asked many, in the medical field, why I would have had to have the vaccine since I already had polio and no one can give me an answer. American courts have addressed many times legal issues of whether government can compel vaccinations and have repeatedly supported immunizations. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention believes that parents should be fully informed of risks and benefits of vaccinations. They give permission before vaccines can be administered. It is a requirement before children can enter school. The number of cases of polio in the United States has dropped steadily since the discovery of the first vaccine, but the disease has not been wiped out. It still exists, and the threat of infection is always there in our country and others.
Lifeline and Headlines
T he lifeline of polio:

1580 First evidence of polio
1909 Polio confirmed as a virus
1916 Outbreak in New York
1921 Franklin D. Roosevelt contracts polio
1928 The first use of the iron lung
1938 March of Dimes is founded
1948 My case begins
1949 Mower County case, Peg (Schultz) Kehret and 42,833 other cases nationally reported
1952 Sister Kenny comes to the United States and uses hot-pack therapy
1953 Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine is given to the masses
1970 Albert Sabin’s oral polio vaccine is developed
1985 Rotary launches the Polio