Yasemin (5): masked party at school
Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.
More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.14 pairs of eyes are looking at Yasemin this morning in October. You look attentively over mouth and nose protectors in different colors and patterns. The eyes belong to students on a biology advanced course. The current subject of the class is genetics - and Yasemin is a walking example of what happens when even a small thing goes wrong. In times of Corona this happens virtually.
Much more than the medical aspects, however, the students are interested in how Yasemin personally deals with the physical handicap. Above all, because it manifests itself externally - if a person has only five fingers on two hands, the last one will also notice it at some point. They hole them up on topics such as wanting to have children ("I think about it when I have stable health") or job ("Self-employment is great for me, because I can get out of it when I'm not doing so well").
Yasemin Seber suffers from the very rare Proteus syndrome. Some parts of the body grow excessively and numerous tumors often form: How does she manage to maintain her courage to face life despite the setbacks? Will a therapy be found that will alleviate the worst ailments? You can find out what happens next every 14 days at - or on Instagram: yasemins-verrueckte_welt. Read what has happened so far here.
"Opening up a different view of life"
She enjoys talking to the young people. Since the WDR reported on them in the series “Menschen hautnah”, there have been increasing inquiries for school events. Why is she doing this? “I can give them a different perspective on life,” she says. "Not everything that seems difficult at first is a drama."
In psychology there is an expression for the ability to survive stressful situations in a mentally healthy way, to master crises instead of breaking through them: resilience. This also includes not getting caught up in problems.
Yasemin is currently taking a mental break from her health hurdles. "I'm fine right now, I just want to enjoy that," she says. Instead of going to the doctor again, she pulled the strings herself after her last operation. “Another doctor's appointment would have put me down,” she explains.
Does the drug work?
The next important appointment for her is on October 16: Then the MRI will check whether the cancer drug she has been taking for weeks has shrunk the tumor in her throat. Then a decision is made as to whether or not to resume the expensive therapy, which was accompanied by yeasty side effects. But she only thinks about that when the time comes.
At the moment she is looking forward to the Tattoo Convention in Dortmund, where she will be represented with her "Piercing Candles": scented candles in which piercing jewelry is melted. The fact that everyone will wear masks due to the corona is a good thing for her. "For everyone else, the mask is a nuisance, for people like me it's a pretty great thing," she says.
Otherwise she would end up in the hospital in March or April at the latest every year - what for other people is just a simple cold, because of the malformations in the lungs, regularly grows into dangerous pneumonia in her. She was spared this season. "The year is almost over and I haven't had a single infection," she says happily.
Mandala as a comforter of the soul
Just in time for the convention, a new large tattoo adorns her back: a mandala that arises from a central flower motif. The boss of the “TRUST Mannheim” studio integrated scars from old wounds into the tattoo. A little bit like Yasemin also deals with the wounds in her life. “My illness is part of me,” she says. And this also includes the mental wounds. They are also part of the overall Yasemin package. And she makes something beautiful out of it every day, as best she can.
