Name: Cristina Osorio
Country: Spain
Type of MS: Relapsing remitting
Year of diagnosis: 2001

It all began in late August 2001. It was very hot and I was lying on the lawn, in the shade of a tree, when I started having a strange sensation on my skin. I wasn’t feeling very well anyway, and the heat was specially bothering me. When I told my mother she made me go immediately to hospital. I thought it was an exaggerated reaction, but I went.

When I arrived at the hospital I was admitted, and that scared me. They did all kinds of tests, including a lumbar puncture followed by complications that kept me in bed for a long month and a half, lying completely flat. I couldn’t even put a pillow under my head. It was the only way I could keep the headache under control.

After this hell, the doctor came into my room and just said: “We have your diagnosis, you have multiple sclerosis”. And that was it, he didn’t say anything else.

I swear I thought that was the end. The only images that came to my mind were wheelchairs and death, I didn’t know anything about this disease and nobody would tell me anything. For some time, fear seized me, it paralysed me.

Some time later I went to another neurologist to ask for a second opinion, and he reassured me. He told me it had been a small exacerbation and that I would probably never have another one. I put it out of my mind and carried on with my life.

In 2007, while I was having a shower after a horse race, I realised I couldn’t feel the water on my legs, as if they weren’t mine. Immediately I knew it was a new flare-up of the disease. I went straight into hospital. The next day I couldn’t feel anything from my chest to my feet, the pain was unbearable and I could hardly walk. I needed help for almost everything.

This came with a great sadness that I couldn’t control. After a week, when I was discharged from hospital, I had to go home on my own. It turned out to be a real adventure – my house has stairs! I had to crawl up them and I could hardly manage it. Thank God my arms and hands worked ok.

Little by little I started noticing that my body was recovering and that the pain wasn’t so strong. I wouldn’t notice the improvements day by day and I had to make an effort to remember how I was one or two weeks before, then I would realise that I was indeed improving. I am sure that living on my own, managing the stairs, taking the dog for a walk, meant I had to make a great effort that forced me to overcome my disability as soon as possible. I didn’t have anyone to help me or to feel sorry for me, and that was a great advantage.

Some time after I decided to ride a horse to see what it felt like. At first, I felt like a sack of potatoes. I couldn’t control my legs at all and after a month of hardly being able to move, I had lost part of my musculature. The good thing was that my legs hardly got tired. I thought it would be good to get fit again, to compete as soon as possible. I know it was a bit crazy but the sensation of finishing a horse race without feeling my legs were tired was a great experience, I even felt I had an advantage over the other jockeys. In two months, I was almost recovered, my life carried on just as before. I even signed up to run triathlons and long-distance races!

One year later, in 2008 and after a very stressful time, I had my third exacerbation. I felt that my life could not carry on as before, I had a feeling something was going to happen. I admit I was afraid, and it happened. I had an attack of optical neuritis from which I have never recovered and which forced me to retire. It was one of the saddest times of my life, and one of the hardest decisions I had to make.

I retired in August 2008, after organising a big competition. It was a dream I had, I made it happen and it was truly unforgettable. Some months later I realised that high-level competition wasn’t doing me any good, and I started seeing things from a different point of view.

I now take part in athletic races. I have learned not to compete, just to enjoy sport without hurting myself. To go to mountain races and stop to look at the views, the mountains and the sky. I don’t care how long it takes me to finish, I only think about going where I want to and enjoying it. The loss of vision in my left eye has shown me new priorities, to enjoy life and things even more, to appreciate more the things I see, the wonderful things that surround us.

Each morning I go running with my dogs. The first thing I think about is how lucky I am, I live very close to the Casa de Campo park in Madrid and I consider myself to be very fortunate. I have learned to value the smell of grass, the rain on my face, the smell of dawn in summer, the silence of the snow, the sky and its stars, and realise how small we are and the great big things we can do.

I want to turn my disease into something even more positive by helping people. Sometimes the people around us, our family and even our friends, with the best of intentions, over-protect us, but by doing so they limit us, they can make us feel more ill and even make us feel sorry for ourselves.

I would like to find other people with Multiple Sclerosis, who want to give the best of themselves, people with ideas, with dreams and enthusiasm. People who want to defy adversity and transform it into an advantage and help others who need their help, because solidarity makes us better people, multiplies the efforts, makes the dreams take shape and frightens the fears away. We are not on our own, we only have each other. We are what we want to be.


If you would like to contact Cristina, please send an email MSIF. We will forward all emails to her.

Thanks to Carolina Smith, volunteer translator for the Federación Española para la Lucha contra la Esclerosis Múltiple, for the translation of this text.