ANASTASIA LENKOVA

rheumatoid arthritis

I was born a healthy child, but when I was eight, several health issues provoked my health, such as bronchitis, incorrectly administered vaccine, knee injury), after which I developed rheumatoid arthritis.

The kind of arthritis that I have happens only to 1% of all diagnosed. It’s almost impossible to stop the progression of this condition through regular therapy. I have deformed hands, several artificial joints, I use crutches to move around. I can’t walk without the support of the crutches as it affects the joints deterioration. At this moment my pinky finger is the only one with unaffected joints.

I got used to pain. It has been with me side-by-side for all my conscious life.

If one day I wake up and don’t feel the pain, I will feel strange.

To cope with pain, I made the decision to begin earning money- quality medication is expensive. This is how I became a participant in a young entrepreneur program and won grant to open my own business — a tanning studio. It was successful, until a judicial system error in 2016, a gigantic amount of money was withdrawn from my credit card. My body became paralyzed from the stress of the situation. No one was able to find the cure, and then an experienced chiropractor found that my sciatica nerve became pinched.

The moment I became paralyzed, I asked myself a question — what have I done in life that I can be proud of? I had no answer. Business is not exactly “it”. I understood that I get excited from helping other people, in fact, I majored in psychology. Currently, I hold group sessions to help people to find themselves and find answers to their own questions.

I walked a long road, from the person who didn’t have any friends, to what I am now- the person who can easily walk up to a person and strike a conversation.

When I was 12, I came across a book, from which I took a conclusion: In order to have friends, you have to become the friend with which you want to be, so friendships is a big part of my life now.

In my opinion, friends are not for spilling our complaints to. Friends are for companionship, laughter, drinking rea together. When we break our arm, we don’t go see our friend, we go see a surgeon, right? Each problem has its own specialist, it’s just sometimes we have hard time realizing that we need help.

There is always a choice in any situation. Often, our subconscious doesn’t see it, but usually there are a lot of resolutions. You just have to try and try again.

Perhaps I am ambitious by nature, otherwise, I would have my business to tell about, stories about hitchhiking, participation in inclusive fashion shows, fashion competitions, and being in Russian Geographical Society expeditions. All of it is despite of my condition, but in some terms- because of it.