Mar. 29--Wanda Crotts doesn't remember being gripped by poliomyelitis.
Only 14 months old, she doesn't recall the high fever, massive doses of antibiotics or isolation from her parents.
It was August 1953. Americans were paralyzed with fear as an epidemic swept the country.
Wanda Crotts, from Belwood, was only a baby when she contracted the virus.
Swimming pools were closed, people stopped going to churches and movie theaters.
Everyone avoided crowds.
Polio, also known as infantile paralysis, left thousands of children dead, paralyzed or disabled.
DIAGNOSED
"Back then polio was like a national threat," said Crotts. "Everybody was gripped with fear. They didn't know what caused it. They didn't know where it came from, when it might strike you."
Crotts, then a toddler, came down with an illness with flu-like symptoms.
The doctor gave her a shot in her thigh and her mother took her home.
"The next day Wanda was limping," said Tim Ware, her husband.
She was taken back to the doctor.
"The doctor just thought she was sore from the shot," Ware said. "The next day she couldn't walk at all."
A pediatrician in Shelby diagnosed Wanda with polio.
"I remember my mama telling me that she knew that's what it was before he even told her because of the expression on his face as he walked down the hall toward her," Crotts said.
ISOLATION
"I don't really remember life before having polio. Just the recovery and the hospital and the surgeries and routine doctor appointments," Crotts said.
The memories were vivid and painful for her parents.
"It's really her parent's memory of it that is the most telling of that time," Ware said. "They remember how Wanda was just taken from them and they had to leave her up there...They remember they had no say-so what happened whatsoever. The doctor told them what was going to happen."
After her diagnoses, Crotts' parents took her to Asheville. A nurse took Wanda upstairs and left them in the waiting area. The doctor told them they could come back the next Sunday when they could see Wanda for two hours.
"As Wanda's mother said, 'They didn't ask you, they told you'," Ware said.
Her parents were not allowed to say good-bye.
"They just had to leave," Ware said.
'I DIDN'T WANT THAT TO DEFINE WHO I WAS'
Unaccustomed to talking about her experience with polio, she struggled to speak about its effect on her body, family and future.
"This is just not something I've talked about over the years because I never wanted myself to be identified with that," she said. "I didn't want that to define who I was."
She said her right leg is weaker and slightly smaller than her left and she has some paralysis in her foot.
She wore a brace on her leg until junior high.
"In my adult life I tried real hard to put that behind me and...most of the people who I worked with over the years, especially in my career, had no clue that I had polio," she said.
"When I met Wanda you couldn't really tell she had polio," Ware said.
"A slight limp," Crotts chimed in. "All in all I lived a perfectly normal lifestyle, a very active lifestyle."
POST-POLIO SYNDROME
Now, that active lifestyle is coming to a screeching halt. Crotts is back in a brace and facing the symptoms of what is known as post-polio syndrome.
About six years ago, she was put back into a brace. She started having weakness in her arms and right leg. Her energy diminished.
Ware said the virus often affects all of the body's muscles but it's not apparent until you start to age.
"We were taught to push ourselves," she said. "Almost every polio person is a type-A personality."
She said she always had a can-do attitude.
"That's probably the hardest thing," she said. "The challenge I have right now is limitation."
Now the mantra the doctors tell her is 'conserve to preserve.'
"Slowly but surely my body's making me do that whether I want to or not." Crotts said.
Despite the challenges, she's optimistic.
"There are a lot of things out there you can do," she said. "You can still be active in the areas you used to be active in but in a different realm."
Crotts said remembering the difficult times is important and one of the reasons she is speaking out about her battle.
"I think it's important for people to realize what people faced, particularly my parents," Crotts said. "I've often said that my having polio was a lot harder on my parents than it ever was on me and I still firmly believe that."
Reach Rebecca Clark at 704-669-3344.
Read more about polio on Page XA
Support group: Catawba Valley post-polio support group. Call Karen, 1-800-662-7119 Ext. 8606.
POLIO FACT BOX: Rotary.org
--A crippling and potentially fatal disease, polio (poliomyelitis) still strikes children mainly under the age of five in countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
--Polio can cause paralysis and sometimes death. Because there is no cure for polio, the best protection is prevention. For as little as US$0.60 worth of vaccine, a child can be protected against this crippling disease for life.
--It can cause paralysis within hours, and polio paralysis is almost always irreversible.
--In the most severe cases, polio attacks the motor neurons of the brain stem, causing breathing difficulty or even death.
--Historically, polio has been the world's greatest cause of disability.
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