Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

Social connection also plays a pivotal role in Peg’s recovery, providing her with the support and motivation she needs to fight the effects of polio and regain her independence. Social connection provides patients with an empathic community that validates their pain and celebrates their victories. The resulting relationships encourage social, physical, mental, and emotional healing through reducing negative or self-deprecating thoughts that often occur in isolation. Such social connections also challenge limiting beliefs and curb destructive habits.

The immediate isolation at the onset of her diagnosis—when Peg is unable to say goodbye to her grandpa or dog—is the first of many occasions in which her situation facilitates feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Unfortunately, in the case of highly infectious, debilitating, and deadly diseases such as polio, isolation is necessary. Peg’s time in isolation at the Sheltering Arms and at University Hospital causes feelings of dejection, as she desperately wants this traumatic experience to end. Peg’s most consistent desire throughout her treatment and recovery is to see her parents. When they are finally allowed into Peg’s room despite her isolation, Peg sees “fear in their eyes” (31), but even so, her dejection transforms into joy despite her bleak prognosis, and she draws strength from her parents’ presence because she feels “safer knowing they [are] in the room” (31).