#thisisNoelia

My name is Noelia, I am 37 years old, I live in Elche (Alicante) in Spain, and I live life on two sides of the same coin: as a nursing professional and as a patient.

Since 2004 I have fed myself exclusively through parenteral nutrition due to a chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction. My childhood was normal, but in adolescence I had to adapt to a new life, living connected to parenteral nutrition for 12 consecutive hours every day.

In the beginning it was not easy. When I was 19 years old I had to learn all the care that parenteral nutrition requires: how to carry out connection and disconnection in a sterile way, being at home for 12 hours each day connected to parenteral nutrition, programming nutrition every day depending on what I had to do the next day to be able to leave home without being connected, complications with catheter infections, hospital admissions, catheter obstructions and dehydration.

I wanted to live without limits, while learning to live with parenteral nutrition, and I succeeded. In doing so I discovered my vocation. Being a nurse allows me to help other people achieve the freedom I have achieved and make their lives easier despite having a chronic illness, whatever it may be.

But I would not have learned to live without limits without the will to live; without the support of my family, my partner and my friends; and certainly not without the support of others in the same situation as me. When I started parenteral nutrition, I didn’t know anyone like me, such a young person with parenteral nutrition, and I felt like a “weirdo”. Over the years I met other people who were starting on this path and I was able to help them. But I didn’t know anyone who had lived with PN longer than I had.

In 2012 my life changed. First, because a new technology appeared: the portable pump backpack for my parenteral nutrition. This was a sea change for me! My freedom! I could leave the house while connected and my life began to have more hours, like any person. The second big change that 2012 brought me was meeting Carolyn at the international congress of parenteral nutrition, where we both shared our experiences. I was amazed to meet someone who had been on parenteral nutrition for 20 years! For me it was a saving grace, a recharge of energy, to see that you could live so well with parenteral nutrition. I 

Now I live without limits with parenteral nutrition. My favourite hobby is travelling the world with parenteral nutrition. I have a motorhome that allows me all the comforts of home and the ability to transport all the equipment I need (I am writing this testimony from my motorhome, and I am in the French Alps). I have worked as a nurse helping other people living with parenteral at home and I have collaborated as a spokesperson for the Spanish association NUPA for people with intestinal failure and who use parenteral nutrition. 

I go to the beach, the pool, the snow and the mountains. I love nature! I became independent a few years ago with the support of my partner. I have attended congresses and meetings connected to my parenteral nutrition, and I have also travelled connected. I play sports, my personal training is part of my treatment to prevent the long-term side effects of parenteral nutrition. Parenteral nutrition doesn’t stop me from doing anything!

Although during this time I have had many health relapses, with 9 subcutaneous reservoirs and 5 PICC catheters, my life is wonderful! Parenteral nutrition has been my source of nutrition for 19 years, and thanks to it I survive and have a full and active life. Living with parenteral nutrition does not stop me following my dreams and pursuing new projects. Faced with a new situation, I always look for ways to make it possible, ones that are compatible with my parenteral nutrition and the safety of the whole process.

I would love it to be the same for everyone living with parenteral nutrition. Enjoy life and the little things that make you immensely happy. Live, dream, enjoy.