From athlete to journalist: stories about those who live with microcephaly
Simone Tavares is a mother of two: Patrícia, 20, and Adriana, 14. They are parathletes and boast over 60 medals. 
Simone Tavares, 41, is a full-time mother of two: Patrícia, 20, and Adriana, 14. The girls were diagnosed with microcephaly when they were little—the elder when she was less than a month old, and the second before birth, when her mother was five months pregnant.
“There's hardly a chance she'll be able to walk or talk. She'll be mentally retarded.” Those were the doctor's words. “A hole split open in the ground and I felt like I was falling into a bottomless abyss,” Simone says as she remembers how she felt the day she heard the diagnosis.
After the first shock wore off, still holding her elder daughter in her arms, Simone and her husband decided to learn more about the condition. “We couldn't see any disability in her. To my eyes, she was perfect. I couldn't understand the diagnosis.”
A neurologist helped the couple calm down, saying only time would show what the girl would be capable of. The baby was sent to an institution offering precocious stimulus therapy. Patrícia started walking and talking the same age as kids without microcephaly. The only special thing about her is that she always remained a tiny little girl.
When Patrícia was six, Simone decided to get pregnant again. “My concern was that she might be alone in the future. I asked the neurologist if microcephaly could happen again and she said no. But a mother knows about things. I could feel it early in the pregnancy. I knew that baby was also going to be different.”
A more in-depth ultrasound revealed the couple's second child was also going to have microcephaly. “There was a second shock, but this time accepting it was easier. I knew it was not the end.” When Adriana was born, even a space at the institution that cared for her sister was already saved for her.
Today, the girls go to a regular school together in the morning, to socialize. Despite communicating well, they have major issues learning to read and write, and are still not fully literate.
In the afternoon, physical therapy, dance, and athletics—their personal favorite. As parathletes, Patrícia and Adriana boast 60 medals, all of which can be found hanging on the wall next to their beds.
“When Adriana was four, a geneticist came to our city. She found out that my husband and I have a chromosome defect, and that we have a 50 percent chance of having another baby with microcephaly. Today, my life is entirely dedicated to my daughters,” Simone says.
Normal childhood
Journalist Ana Carolina Dias Cárcere, 24, gives us a first-hand account of what her life with microcephaly is like.
Ana Carolina, 24, journalist
Diagnosed from birth—the circumference of her head was a mere 27.4cm when she was born—she says she suffered from seizures up to the age of 12 and had to take strong medication to control them. She also had to undergo five delicate surgeries including the forced opening of bones in her cranium to make room for her brain to grow. The first of them took place just nine days after she was born, and the last one when she was nine. “My childhood was as normal as it could be,” she told Agência Brasil in an interview.
“Despite the difficulties, I went to school, and learning was normal. I started school at seven, a little later than other kids, but I managed well. I kept studying in the same class for nine years straight. Then I went to high school, and after that college. I started law, but switched to journalism in the third semester,” she recounts. Her graduation ceremony was held in December, 2015.
Her main plan now is finding a job. “I've handed out my resume in some places, but haven't heard from any employers yet.”
In the long run, Ana Carolina intends to study a foreign language and start a graduate program in international journalism.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: From athlete to journalist: stories about those who live with microcephaly
