Pain management, planning, and poetry win the day

After a series of misdiagnoses of chronic pain, King David Victory Park matriculant Yocheved Saksenberg was diagnosed in Grade 10 with fibromyalgia, a nerve condition which causes hypersensitivity to pain. “It’s hard for me to sit for long periods of time when I need to study. The pain is often bad, and becomes distracting,” she said.

In addition to the pain itself, Saksenberg had to undergo two procedures during matric, causing her to miss important school work. “I tried to organise how I would go about my school work. I would get the date of the procedure, and then study harder or plan what I would want to study in advance of the procedure, and factor in how long it would take to recover,” she said.

“Unfortunately, with the first procedure scheduled during mini prelims, I seriously miscalculated and didn’t manage to maintain a good balance between it and my academics, with the procedure getting most of my attention,” said Saksenberg. “It was disheartening when I got my results back and saw that I hadn’t done as well as I could have.”

For her next procedure, which was after prelims, she made sure to plan accordingly, and was much happier with her results. “I always tell myself in these situations, ‘It happened, there’s nothing I can do to change it, but I can work and maybe plan better for next time’, which is what I did.” Saksenberg was awarded the Rosin Trophy for Diligence and Determination for perseverance throughout her matric year.

Another challenge for Saksenberg was “just keeping my head on straight”. “There were so many assignments all at once, and I’m a huge procrastinator. I actually only get work in when it feels like a life-or-death situation, or rather fail-or-pass,” she said.

She gets motivation and energy from “being with my friends and hanging out and having fun together”. This made exam periods, during which she wasn’t in class with her peers, particularly difficult. “It was difficult to get through the days because usually we would see each other in class and we have our jokes and fun, and that gives us the energy to carry on.”

She described the defining moments of her high school career as “any moment I was in class. I loved all my teachers. I love my fellow students and my friends. They would make the classes engaging and just so enjoyable. It felt like a huge family.”

She was able to complete the year with the support of her friends and teachers in spite of the challenges. One of the teachers who inspired her was her English teacher, who encouraged her to submit her poetry into the SACEE (South African Council for English Education) creative writing competition, for which she received a bronze award. “I write poetry in my spare time as a release or as a grounding moment in all the stress,” she said.

Saksenberg said she’s looking forward to her future although she’s still deciding her exact path. “Aside from that, I’m focused on having fun, spending time with my friends and family, and mostly just going with the flow.”

Saksenberg scored within the top 1% for English in the Independent Examinations Board matric results.