Kauai Man’s Nemesis Comes Back to Haunt Him - Write Path, an L.L.C. by Pamela V. Brown

Pamela V. Brown

Write Path, an L.L.C.

The Kauai, March-April 2004

Kauai Man's Nemesis Comes Back to Haunt Him

Bob Wilson Fights Post-Polio Syndrome

By Pamela V. Brown

WAIPOULI - Nearly 50 years after his near-death battle with polio which left him with a limp and eventually the need for crutches, Bob Wilson is facing Post-Polio Syndrome, a condition that affects millions of polio survivors worldwide and was only recognized by the medical community about 20 years ago.

Bob Wilson - Photo by Pamela V. Brown

Like a returning nightmare, Post-Polio Syndrome (PPS) attacks the body, causing intense pain, muscle fatigue, muscle failure, and sometimes respiratory and swallowing problems - basically re-paralyzing limbs that survivors successfully rehabilitated many years ago.

This is the fix that Wilson now finds himself in. After 5 decades of hard-earned mobility he's back in a wheelchair. Despite his constant physical pain, the 73-year-old Wilson approaches this new problem with his customary method of finding a bit of silliness in every situation.

His thoughts barely one step ahead of his rapid-fire delivery, Wilson peppers most of his comments with wisecracks. Gleefully demonstrating the beeping sound that his new indoor/outdoor electric scooter makes when he's backing up, Wilson notes with pride that the mailman predicted that he'll be the first one on his street to receive a speeding ticket.

Born in Honolulu, Wilson moved to Kauai 44 years ago, and from his base here, he worked and spread his quick wit all over the world, serving as a financial consultant in many countries, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan.

Having led such an active life, it's clearly frustrating to him to now be unable to easily move through his own home. He often sits upstairs in his spacious living room surveying a grand view of the mountains and meadows of Wailua and Kapaa. Because getting downstairs has become an arduous task, he said he's having a dumb waiter installed soon, quipping, "I thought I was the dumb waiter."

The dread virus struck him a lifetime ago, but Wilson recalls the events as if they happened yesterday. A medical epidemic that primarily hit children, Wilson thought as a healthy 23-year-old, he wasn't at risk.

Back then, rumors ran rampant about the cause. "I was told I got it from flies. In those days they (also) said it was something that had to do with being with kids who had colds or being in the pool," he said. "The newspaper said don't swim in cold water, drink orange juice, wear a face mask when you went to the movies. Nobody knew what it was."

Falling ill during his honeymoon on Maui, he experienced intense pain, fell and was unable to lift himself off the floor. When a doctor came for house call, as was customary in those days, he asked Wilson how he felt. "I told him I felt seasick so he gave me Dramamine," Wilson recalls dryly,

Wilson eventually found himself at Tripler Army Medical Hospital in Honolulu in isolation - which along with quarantine was the only known treatment at the time - in the hospital's basement where it was "colder than Hell" and was serviced by "nurses in atomic waste outfits with gloves."

Wilson passed a full six months in the hospital, but fortunately avoided the dreaded iron lung, an uncomfortable and formidable-looking device that helped patients breathe.

Largely paralyzed for much of the time he was confined, only able to move his right arm and fingers, Wilson experienced pain and the worst kind of frustration. "You're in a great deal of pain, you ache all over and you can't do anything about it. If you have an itch you can't scratch it," he said.

"It was really scary in those days because you didn't know if you were going to die or not," Wilson said, nothing that three people in his ward died. "One time we were just playing cards the day before. One guy said, 'I don't feel good. I'm going to lie down.' We heard a commotion later that night. They took him out. He had died."

Doctors were certainly familiar with the polio virus in 1952, the year that Wilson fell ill - and also the same year that early versions of Jonas Salk's vaccine were being tested. Since 1955 the vaccine has been widely administered to young children in developed nations so the disease and its sometimes fatal consequences are a distant memory to Americans. Most people under the age of 40 have only a vague concept of what polio is.

Nationwide there were 58,000 cases that year, overwhelming hospitals nationwide, and Tripler was no exception. Wilson recalled hallways filled with gurneys of polio patients. Some of the medical techniques employed could be described as barbaric at worst, and frightening at best.

"They wouldn't give you regular pain medication because they didn't know how it would affect the polio so they'd give you a spinal tap with no anesthesia. You'd see a big needle coming and would think 'Oh no, now what?' "

Wilson said the worst thing that happened was when a specialist delivered the sobering news that he probably wasn't going to die, but would never be able to walk again without support from a cane, walker or wheelchair.

"That's when I realized I had a problem," Wilson said, realizing that his dreams of becoming a pilot were slipping away and wondering how he was going to create a stable financial future. "I thought maybe I'd have to divorce my wife if I couldn't support her."

Wilson described receiving what was called the "Sister Kenney treatment" in which patients were swathed in scalding hot towels, apparently to "wake up" the muscles in the body, combined with stretching the paralyzed limbs, a painful and not always productive procedure.

After multiple sessions, Wilson had a breakthrough. "Finally one morning at 4 a.m. I moved my leg a bit," and was beside himself with excitement. "I thought I'd won the Kentucky Derby or something,"

Eventually he got out of the hospital and started on his long road back to physical independence. Wilson is nothing if not adept at making the best of situations and he's had much luck in happening into people willing to befriend and help him. "When you have something that disables you a little bit, you find a lot of nice people around you who are willing to help you."

One such person was his good friend Hastings B. Pratt, president of the Fuller Brush company, which sold brushes and cleaning products door-to-door. Pratt summoned Wilson to his home - Wilson drove himself but had to enter the house in his wheelchair. Pratt told Wilson that as soon as he could walk a bit he should get out and sell brushes.

Soon Wilson set out on a part-time route with a small attaché case of brush samples in Wailupe Peninsula, an upscale area in Aina Haina on Oahu.

"There were a lot of nice people down there and they all felt sorry for me so I did very well," Wilson recalled, chuckling. "I'd walk for an hour or two. It was one of the best things that happened to me, and I made money doing it."

Wilson seems to have no regrets about the turns his life took. His determination to make his life work for him is evident in his accomplishments, especially abruptly changing plans once he understood that his dreams of becoming a pilot had been shattered.

"I realized that if I can't fly and I can't walk, I have to get a job where I sit in a chair," Wilson said. He went back to college and earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in business administration and began a long and distinguished career as a financial planner for his own firm, Financial Functions, Inc., and as chief financial officer or controller of many firms throughout the state including Lihue Plantation from 1959 to 1984. He even was station manager of KTOH for a year, the precursor to KQNG Radio.

It was in 1984 that Post-Polio Syndrome came calling. Wilson didn't know what hit him. Faced with tremendous and relentless pain, swiftly losing his ability to walk, Wilson was sure he wouldn't live out the next year. He retired to spend time with his family.

Proving stubbornness sometimes pays off, Wilson of course did make it through the year. Finally in 1986 a doctor gave him a newspaper article about PPS. He finally had a name for his nemesis - a close relative of his first medical adversary.

One of the prescriptions for Post-Polio Syndrome is to sit and rest - the concept being that the polio virus destroyed nerve cells, so survivors overcompensate by over-using other muscles, eventually wearing them out.

But Bob Wilson is not good at sitting still. It's clear he still has much to offer and wants to be out in the world again. "I'm just too anxious to get out and do something." He's put out feelers to various organizations to serve as a volunteer business consultant. He'd like to use his many years of experience and wealth of financial planning knowledge to help up and coming business owners. They may just have to come to him.

"I'm not a complainer but I wish I didn't have this pain," Wilson said. "But I can cope with it."

Contact Information: Pamela V. Brown (808) 651-3533 cell (808) 821-1027 fax pam@writepath.net

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