The story of Valentina
When I was 12 years old someone noticed that I was always walking on tiptoe and asked me rudely if I was doing it to look taller and all, but the answer I gave started a 2-year search for what was causing it: “It’s the only way to walk that doesn’t cause me pain”
During those 2 years I did monthly exams from normal blood tests to electroencephalography and that one that gives you small electric shocks to see how the brain responds to it. It wasn’t funny, I was young and sometimes my legs would just leave me in the ground, with extreme pain… I was forced to stop doing the sports I liked. In the end, after a long day-hospital, a doctor simply told me “You have hydrosyryngomielia with cleft in S1” (syringomielia + hydromielia + cleft in s1) and briefly explained to me what it is and how I should behave and work to avoid having unnecessary pain.
It was nice to have a diagnosis after all that time, but it was something that will affect me forever: I can’t run nor walk for more than 30 minutes before starting to suffer from severe pain; people often confuse it with me just being lazy.
I just hope to have a fulfilling life with the joys the world offer you, like finding my husband, friends that really understand me the most and a loving family that will never let me be alone.