Daria Puley, born 22.08.1997
Diagnosis: Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
Up-to-date treatment news of Daria Puley
The Reports of Donations Received and Spent
Contacts of parents and volunteers
ATTENTION (7.04.2014).:
The fund-raising campaign is closed. We'll keep you up-to-date about Daria's treatment progress!
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Daria was born a healthy and calm baby. She grew up like all children, cheerful, kind, friendly, very sociable, but she often had sore throat and colds. In 2007, her father died, and Daria was heartbroken about it, and all of this had a negative impact on her health. Daria studied singing, won prizes at the All-Ukrainian competitions. She has a very strong and beautiful voice.
In July 2009, my little daughter felt the pain in the arm, even though she did not hit it, nor fell. I, as a mother naturally took her to the doctor. Daria was examined by an elderly surgeon. He looked, did tests and said that something was wrong and sent us for further examination. However, we were soon assured that everything was just fine, so we came back home. Daria’s arm no longer hurt and we forgot about it. September came and Daria went to school. In the midst of studying Daria showed me the finger on the hand which swelled out. I thought that she hit it somewhere, but one week later another hand had the same problem. As soon as we consulted the doctor, my daughter was immediately taken to the hospital. Our town is small, there are no cardiologists and we were consulted by a pediatrician who couldn’t diagnose Daria, so he sent us to the Zaporizhzhia Regional Hospital. My daughter was finally diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in Zaporizhzhia.
I understand that this diagnosis is not cancer, but it is not less life-threatening. This condition means joints’ damage what requires some replacement. Juvenile rheumatoid often affects the child’s vision what may eventually lead to complete blindness. In some very severe cases all the internal organs are affected. Like most of such diseases, it has an autoimmune nature. The body produces auto-antibodies against its own tissues, which leads to joint damage. We were immediately sent to Okhmatdet clinic to Kharkov to the rheumatology department. Diagnosis is confirmed, the disease was caused by the sun.
On our return to Zaporizhzhia, we immediately started to take the hormones.
From a skinny child Daria has turned into a ball within 1.5 months…She put on weight 20 kg at once. As a result doctors began to remove hormones and start to do Metrotreksat injections, of one of the chemotherapy drugs. Due to these drugs Daria had nausea, hair loss but she continued her treatment. Sometimes my daughter could not get out of bed in the morning. She could not even take a cup in her hands...
During the 3.5 years of the disease, we have about 20 discharges from the different hospitals.
Every 3-4 months we go to Kharkov for correction of the treatment regimen, pick up medicine for 2 or 3 weeks. We also went to Sevastopol to a leading candidate of sciences, to a professor from Evpatoria. We attributed the drug Humira immunobiological only in April this year in Kiev Okhmatdet clinic but it is very expensive, to be exact - fabulously expensive. We paid for everything during 3.5 years without asking for help. But now, alas, came the moment when I am powerless, I do not have such funds, and my daughter must be saved!
Daria finished the 9th grade of home-schooling, she should be very careful not to catch any infection. If someone just sneezes nearby, she immediately picks up the infection. Now she is attending nurse courses. She also wants to become a psychologist and help people.
There is still no real cure for rheumatoid arthritis nowadays, but one can surely achieve long-term remission and a satisfactory quality of life with a thorough treatment and following all doctor's recommendations.
New treatments contribute to speedy removal of the acute process in the joints, and significantly improve the condition of the child, so that many of the former little patients can attend a regular school, later high school and have their own families in the future.
I know that there are many helpful and kind people in the world, I am not asking for myself! I beg you! Please, help me to raise money to buy Humira medicine for my child who is suffering from pain.
At the moment my child is in the Regional Children's hospital, the tests’ results are not good, drugs don’t help, I'll take her home. We do not have money for further treatment. We will wait at home. Thanks in advance for your kind support! Please take care of your kids, they are our greatest treasure! I wish you and your family to stay healthy!
The family lives in Berdyansk.
The Telephone number of Daria's mother, Svetlana: + 38066 855 07 00.
For further information please contact the volunteers of “The Happy Child” Foundation
