Maarja Teder: Help me breathe!

Hello!

I feel that it is time to let you know about my progress and activities. You can always write to me if there is something you wish to find out.

As of today, since my most recent hospitalization, I am using my fourth box of Kaftrio. I am feeling quite good. I am eating a lot of food (hereby I remind you that I have been inserted with a feeding tube, because eating is a very difficult task for me), I am physically active and joyful. Since July, I have been able to raise my body weight by 7 kilograms, which is a fantastic accomplishment, because one of the main complications of those living with cystic fibrosis is being underweight. Everything seems to be perfect … that is until I get that worrying feeling in the back of my head that my medicine supply will be running out in a couple of weeks, I still do not have the funds to purchase the next batch, and the delivery times of the medicine have already stretched out to several weeks. If only there was some sort of good solution …

The lung transplantation. It was the summer of 2020. I had just been placed in a hospital. I was feeling terrible: I had a severe bacterial infection in my body, a fever and difficulty breathing. I had been on the organ transplant list for nearly two years – and just at that moment, I received a phone call that the right lungs were available … My new chance for a higher quality life was finally within reach. At that same moment, my hopes collapsed, because my body was simply too weak to allow the operation to be carried out. All those emotions: the feeling that my only chance to live had passed; anger, disappointment, depression, wanting to just smash things against the wall … And all of that at just 27 years of age. Other 27-year-olds went to work, travelled, studied, were in a relationship or broke up, raised children – but I was sitting in the hospital all the time and hoping that I could simply be allowed to live …

Thanks to Kaftrio, my body is currently in the best shape for the lung transplantation. After this operation, I would be expecting good results. However, waiting for the transplantation is a time filled with anxiety for me, because I must be in good health. Every moment, I could be receiving a phone call that I need to get to the hospital RIGHT NOW, because there is only ca 6 hours available to perform the transplantation – and this includes the precise work of doctors.

Hereby I am asking you to at least consider becoming an organ donor, because taking a few minutes to fill out this form could mean that you will be saving someone’s life someday: https://www.elundidoonorlus.ee/tahteavaldus 

Despite fearing that the medicine will run out and that the Health Insurance Fund will not be able to find funding for it after all, I will be going all the way and I will never give up, because hope dies last!

In the meanwhile, as we are waiting for the Health Insurance Fund to pay for the medicine, YOU can help me stay alive. The donation channels and accounts (MTÜ Janno Puusepa Fond and Naerata Ometi MTÜ) remain active. A huge thank you to all of you, kind people and companies, for helping me breathe and stay alive!

HELP ME BREATHE!

Maarja Teder

Major supporters: 

• Väike Projekt OÜ
• Sergei Astafjev