After having covered more than 6000 km on foot, Violette Duval will leave Marseille on March 19 for a walk with her stroller to Paris. 1000 km added to his counter to make health professionals aware of the management of fibromyalgia.
May 12 will be the 29th world fibromyalgia daythis is the day that Violette Duval has set for her arrival in Paris.
It’s a paradox, there is a world day for this disabling chronic pain when it is not recognized by social security. It is to make things happen that Violette Duval walks and still walks.
On March 19, she will reach Paris from Marseille, the city of arrival of her journey of more than 6700 km across Europe carried out in 2020.
“I’m leaving because it hasn’t changed, we’re still not recognized, explains Violette Duval, 37, it’s always to raise awareness, but here it’s more to meet practitioners and try to find solutions”.
The best treatment today is to stay active, but you still have to be able to do it.
Throughout her travels, Violette Duval was able to realize the lack of knowledge of health professionals and their difficulties in providing answers to this complex pathology, for which there is no treatment.
“The best treatment at the moment is to stay active, but you still have to be able to do it”, she notes.
“The medical profession is quite powerless in the face of our illness, there is no protocol, even if we are more and more advocating adapted physical activity, every time I go to see a physiotherapist, he does not know my pathology and he doesn’t know how to do it”, she observes.
Hence its objective to share the experiences and know-how of health professionals who are used to fibromyalgia and chronic pain: physio, osteo, occupational therapist, nutritionist, adapted physical activity coach…
“The idea is that they testify and explain that a multidisciplinary solution must be found, there are specialists everywhere but nothing is coordinated, but in by doing an adapted multidisciplinary program we arrive at things“.
The young Norman can rely on 25 years of cohabitation with her fibromyalgia. Ex-basketball player, she manages the disease as a top athlete, with podiatric monitoring for suitable shoes, osteo sessions once a month in addition to physiotherapy.
She also discovered that diet could play a role. “I am reviewing this with the nutritionist, knowing that when I went to Asia, I had less pain”.
Violette Duval realized that a gluten-free and lactose-free diet suited her better. “We are constantly adapting in fact”.
“I want to demonstrate that physical activity is important because it creates endorphins (Editor’s note: the hormone of well-being) but that behind it there is a lot of work and micro-adaptation. Each body is different and it’s not easy but we can achieve a certain balance”.
“Many people who have the disease can no longer do anything. You have to stay active, but it’s quite difficult to hear it and if several practitioners say it and people testify, it will perhaps make things happen”.
Many people with fibromyalgia turn to the pain center, but for Violette Duval, medication cannot be a long-term solution.
“It does not heal, she recalls, we take painkillers, antidepressants, antiepileptics, things that inhibit the brain, and that often creates other problems because it is for the long term that these people take these drugs”.
Violette Duval saw her hopes of a career as a high-level sportswoman vanish when she felt her first pain in her feet at the age of 14. “At 25, I really had a very big crisis, I moved more, I couldn’t do anything anymore”.
Unable to keep his job as auditor-accountant. “At the time, I was told: you have to get back to work as if I were a lazy!”.
Today, she works as a receptionist in campsites or youth hostels, six months a year. “I only feel good when moving, it’s still complicated, after six months of work I’m very tired”.
Not recognized by health insurance, fibromyalgia is therefore not recognized as a disability. This is also what Violette Duval is fighting for. Against the denial of a “women’s disease” which does not show up in exams.
“80 %, they are women, and it is true that it is difficult to be heard”, she regrets.
“Among doctors, there are a lot of” fibroseptics “, we are hammered that it’s in our head, we are told about a trash disease…”
“Recently, I saw a doctor who told me: I don’t know what it is, but it’s psychosomatic”, says Violette Duval, recalling that 3% of the world’s population is concerned.
Because she believes in this fight, Violette Duval will therefore hit the road again. A crossing of France to the gates of the Ministry of Health, where she hopes to get an appointment.
The walker has already planned her first 20 stages along the Via Rhôna to Dijon. She shared her calendar on her Facebook page and she invites those who wish to come and walk alongside her. And if she can make a small place with the locals, for her and her stroller, the invitation is welcome.
His meetings will feed a web-series. Violette Duval is still looking for funds to carry out her project, she has launched crowdfunding on the helloasso platform.
At the same time, she released her book “Bornes to walk”, which recounts her adventure.
Violette Duval makes an appointment with the Marseillais who want to encourage her at the start of her trip, on March 19 at 10 a.m. under the shade of the Old Port.
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