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eral anesthesia, especially if there is documented obstructive sleep apnea. To get the best anesthesia care in your area, you may check out any of the following websites: American Society of Anesthesiology, patient education website www.asahq.org/patientEducation.htm Post-Polio Health International www.Post-polio.org/ipn/anes.html Joint Commission (JCAHO) www.jointcommission.org and check on “Quality” checkmark In the discussion about pain and polio, Dr. Calmes mentioned that pain is affected by many factors, including: perception, sex (women have more pain receptors in the spine), age, focus, arousal/anxiety, cognitive level, exposure to others’ pains, past pain experience, cultural norms, expectation, consequences, relevance of pain, and coping ability. Also, polio patients usually have abnormal spinal cord anatomy due to the original disease, and the extensive scarring that occurs as cells die in the acute infection. Pain treatments include: educational, pharmacological, physical, behavioral, psychological, and complementary therapies. Dealing with pain involves a number of hurdles, among them, being: cultural, lack of trained medical staff, high cost of real pain service, reimbursement issues, fear of addiction, and side effect of medication. The goal of pain treatment is to restore balance in neural signaling. Causes of pain affect how to treat pain. For instance, soft tissue pain may be corrected through body mechanics, rest, physical modification or anti-inflammatory medications. Research is showing that shingles not only affects sensory neurons, but may also affect motor neurons in polio survivors. This may lead to further muscle weakness. Dr. Calmes stressed that at the first sign of shingle symptoms, seek treatment immediately. A vaccine against shingles is being introduced that may be worth considering. ž Memorial Fund - At our annual conference we had an opportunity to see the special computer keyboards that were acquired with the Memorial Fund proceeds. Each branch of the University of Maine system has one available for any student who has difficulty using the standard keyboard. This special keyboard is very soft to the touch and takes very little effort to strike each key. If you know of any student who may find this keyboard useful, the student may contact the college administrator’s office and ask about special adaptive equipment. ž Allergies, then and now Board member, Lucy Morin, came across an old newspaper article from 1946 about a “possible link between polio and allergies”. It appeared that allergic signs appeared two to three times more often in the 249 polio patients tested from Minnesota compared with 246 students without any signs of having had polio. The study was supported by the Sister Kenney foundation. The study suggested that when allergies were active, they may predispose a person to a crippling attack of polio by lowering his/her resistance. One can wonder just how many of us do suffer with allergies now? Honey may help someone with allergies. Board member, Dexter Eaton said he read that favorable results were attained if someone were able to take each day a little honey gathered within a five-mile radius of one’s home. |
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