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Ask for a bone density test
If you fall and fracture a bone, ask to have a bone
density assessment. Well, try, but don’t hold your
breath! When I broke my big toe in my ‘bad’ foot,
the senior consultant stood with his back to me,
held up the x-ray, and said: “You’ve crushed your
foot. You need to come in and have a plate put in
i t ”.I replied that no, I didn’t. Only then did he
look at me and, seeing my deformed foot, merely
said: “ O h”.
Four months later (I’ll skip over the juvenile
radiologist trying to snap my ankle, ignoring
my insistence that it contained a pin), the same
consultant, preoccupied with traffic around a
table, was supervising the clockwise movement
of patients. As I tediously waited, a young Danish
doctor, staring in disbelief at the circus, asked
if he could attend me. He commented: “It’s
beginning to knit but with severe osteoporosis.”
This was the first I knew of it. When the plate
was held up, even I could see the delicate, lacy
pattern that was my left foot. The consultant
hadn’t bothered to notify me nor the GP.
When a fracture x-ray reveals a lack of bone density,
the patient is supposed to be referred to the
osteoporosis clinic. There was no follow-up at all.
The integrity of the pin is certainly suspect, and
I don’t even know whether the severe loss of
bone density is limited to my foot. I’ve had no
scan. As one nurse said: “There’s no point. It isn’t as
if you are going to start walking everywhere, is it?”
I can only assume this is another example of
people with polio being filed at the back of the
shelf. A relative with arthritis is called for a scan
every two to three years, even though there has
been no evidence of osteoporosis to date.
Carol Claydon
24
Pat Wyper
Sunderland and District Branch
President Pat Wyper passed
away in June, aged 81. The local
press wrote about Pat’s many
achievements.
Pat was very prominent in helping
to develop the Sunderland Branch
in 1954 when she was only 23.
Pat developed polio at the age of 18 months
and wanted to help other young people from
the epidemics of the 30s, 40s and 50s. Over the
years she has supported young people from
early school into teenage years, leaving school
and working. She believed we could achieve
great things and encouraged young members
to overcome their disabilities.
One of her earliest battles was to take children
with polio swimming. Pool managers thought
the virus would spread and refused entry. Pat
won the battle.
The local paper quoted Nigel
Lee, who benefitted from Pat’s
support. “She helped give me a
much wider outlook on life. For all
we were disabled, the people in our
group were actually a cross-section
of society and for the most part we
just wanted to enjoy life.”
Pat was a special lady who had a big heart
with love and compassion for others. She
had endless willpower and determination
to succeed, not only in her own life but to
ensure others succeeded and overcame their
disabilities. She selflessly worked hard for other
people with polio and was ‘Mother’ to many
over the years.
Pat attended meetings and came to branch
support sessions every month until this year.
She will never be forgotten.
Shirley Williams
The British Polio Fellowship