My mother was diagnosed with polio.  I’m told her head was drawn back.  I’m not sure which one she had.  She was told that she was 6 weeks pregnant with me
at that time.  She lived in Spur, Texas - the year was 1955.  I was born in May of 1956, with a deformed left leg, which was amputated at the age of 5.

I was treated at a polio clinic in Plainview, Texas until I was 13 months old.  At that time, I was sent to the Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children in Dallas, Texas, where I was treated until I was 17 years old.

I am now 48 years old and live in north-eastern Michigan.  I have had health problems all my life and have been treated for so many things, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and similar things.  I have dysphagia - my swallowing problems are painful, but due to low blood pressure, I cannot take the calcium channel-blockers that might help.

I found a wonderful GP doctor who finally diagnosed me with PPS and sent me to the PPS clinic at St. Johns near Detroit.  I have severe back spasms, some scoliosis, arthritis and nerve pain.  I have so many different things going on with my body, that one doctor said that I'm a hysterical female!

I am now going to the pain clinic in Alpena.  The doctor there used to practice at the PPS clinic at Uni of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.  She does not believe that polio could cross the placenta, or that I have PPS, but she also said that she has never had a patient that was the product of such an early stage of pregnancy.

My body does not behave like most peoples.  My mother's PPS doctor, in San Antonio, Texas, disagrees with my pain clinic doctor.  He says that I definitely had polio, along with my mother.

I thank goodness for my GP family doctor.  He has really gotten to know me and takes me seriously.  He is a godsend.  He researches and has diagnosed several more PPS patients.  He thanks me for making him aware of it.          Mary Plowman