Johann Quisumbing

Before October 2015, there was a time when I was standing on my own power. Though I was a victim of the polio epidemics of the ’50s, I was still very active and adventurous regardless my physical limitation. I played sports when I was young from American football, soccer, volleyball, racket ball, and fencing. I was also quite a good dancer. There was a even a time when I traipsed the trails of the high Sierras with a 70 pound backpack on my back. Those were the good ol’ days. I recall the highlights of my youth for all of you as a way of background.

If I remember right, I started to really slow down on 1998. By the time the millennium rolled in, I was riding an electric scooter (used by Seniors) up and down the streets of Manila as a way to compensate for not able to walk long distant anymore. Then I started to lose my balance more often and my legs would collapse with no warning. Then, one day as I was eating lunch, my left arm felt so weak that I could not lift the food up to my mouth. It was then that my wife and I went to the doctors. The word we got was that I was experiencing post-polio syndrome. It was a deteriorating muscular condition that been ailing many polio victims in their old age. Of course, I have long knew about post-polio and prepared for it. But I was not prepared for what happened next.

For now, I will leave it there for the next post.

With much hope, thank you.

Johann Q.