Tattooed on the skin, near the ankle, the dopamine formula: The neurotransmitter my body lacks, the one I have to add to myself to be completely Stefania. The drama of this woman concentrated in a tattoo that also contains her strength. It is not easy for her to tell about herself. He gets there with difficulty. And with emotion. From the age of six, as a child, I always fell. I was all staggering, bent, crooked: the walk, the feet, the eyes, even the teeth …. As a teenager he still struggled: I tried to keep up with the others and I couldn’t. I was shaking, I had no thrust. The doctors in turn were groping in the dark and never came to a diagnosis. They were experimenting with drugs that had no effect, or worse: in his case they had contraindications and temporarily ended up compromising the situation even more.
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Stefania Lavore, who is now 39 years old, at one point she had come to weigh twenty kilos more from hyperphagia, a side effect of unsuitable medicine. A roller coaster. My sister protested that I was always angry. The brain told me to follow the others but the physicist replied: no. My body wanted to sleep. He was stiff, without courage. The response comes in 2012. Stefania is recognized as one of the rare cases of very early onset of Parkinson’s. Thus the treatments also begin. I remember the euphoria the first time they gave me dopamine. Suddenly I had the stamina and balance in my body to move, nothing more and nothing less, she remembers. And again: My goal has never been “to protect myself safely” in the etymological sense of the word, from the Latin without care, without worry. I wanted to fight hard. Sometimes I know that I will not be able to lift even a fusillo with a fork due to fatigue, yet I still pour the pasta on my plate.
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Feels a bit like Cinderella: Expiring. Because when the dopamine effect ends, I fall back on myself. He never lost heart, however. Graduated with honors in industrial biotechnology, she works as a laboratory technician in a cancer research center. a precision job and I am proud that I have never let myself be held back by my shaking hands. The satisfaction of coming home and feeling that I have done my duties at the best, just like my colleagues. From 22 to 27 September I will participate in the free photographic exhibition organized by the Parkinson Italy Confederation at the Piccolo Teatro, with the voices of Lella Costa and Claudio Bisio. His will be one of the 22 stories represented. I do it because I want it to be known that Parkinson’s does not go back but by taking care of it, life can still be beautiful.
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15 September 2020 | 00:55
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