A 'Second Home' for Vania
Vania had just celebrated her 10th birthday when she noticed something wasn’t quite right. Underweight and growing increasingly exhausted, she was taken to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where doctors diagnosed her with systemic lupus—an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue—which caused stage 3 kidney failure. Just days into her hospitalization, she also suffered a devastating seizure.
“I woke up and didn’t know who my mom was,” Vania recalls. “I didn’t even know who I was.”
For the next two months at CHLA, Vania had to relearn how to walk, talk and even use the bathroom. The hardest part, Vania says, was returning to school. She looked different from the last time her friends had seen her, because of the medications she was taking, and staying focused during class was a challenge every day.
Overwhelmed with recurring headaches and the stress of transitioning back into school, Vania was referred to the hospital’s Pediatric Pain Management Clinic.
With a therapist, she practiced biofeedback, a technique that helped her relax, control her breathing and calm herself down when she got too anxious. This skill set became even more essential when she was diagnosed a few years later with fibromyalgia and flexor tenosynovitis, conditions that triggered widespread pain in her hands and back.
“It was deep and sharp, like a stabbing pain,” says Vania. “It was debilitating to the point where I couldn’t even get out of bed.”
A healing touch
She eventually needed surgery. Both before and after, Vania went to the Pain Clinic for acupuncture, one of the many services staff use to provide comprehensive care. The effects of each session were nothing short of amazing.
“Nobody wants to see their child in pain,” says her mom, Edith. “We had tried so many things, and she would still have 12 hours of pain, but just one half-hour of treatment would help her so much. I could finally see some relief on my child’s face.”
For the next 10 years, Vania continued seeing her therapist and acupuncturist to help her through any setbacks. She’s since graduated high school and is now attending college to study early childhood education, with the hope of one day becoming a teacher. Meanwhile, the 21-year-old is also preparing to transition to adult health care—a move that will take her away from CHLA, a place she has called “my second home” for half of her life.
“As someone who has had to deal with pain and different diagnoses throughout the years, the hospital has been life-changing,” says Vania. “The support I’ve been given has made a world of a difference.”
