Module 1: Living with

Meet Vanja and Øyvind

Vanja

Vanja was a happy girl from Trondheim where she lived with her parents. She attended upper secondary school and enjoyed photography, films and computers.
She had some good friends and many interests. Vanja loved travelling to the family’s cabin in Trøndelag and to other places around the world. Her family and best friend were the most important people in Vanje’s life. With so many good helpers and a lot of determination almost everything was possible even though she needed someone alert and awake by her side 24/7.

Vanja suffered with a chronic respiratory infection and her lungs were stiff, as a result she was prone to infections. Despite this, the disease was kept under control for the last ten years with 14 days of chemical treatment at a hospital every three months. Sadly for all involved, her life came to an end in October 2014.
    
Vanja had many life desires and dreams, and luckily she got to experience many of them. Her family feel that it’s important that others in a similar situation benefit from the messages in the video interviews we made in Trondheim in April 2014. They’re about maintaining a sense of humour, togetherness, well-being, respect for one’s convictions and heaps of love!

Now you’re going to meet Vanja just before her 18th birthday.

Øyvind

Øyvind lives with his brother in a house in Narvik. Both brothers have home mechanical ventilation and require assistance with practical tasks. They have arranged it in a way that a team of assistants gives them around the clock care, so in that respect they live very well. They have a home cinema, a home that has been practically furnished with even a pinball game. They have a system for training their assistants and Øyvind likes to make his own decisions to the extent possible. He wants to take responsibility for himself and his health. The assistants are actually living ‘assistive devices’  – his arms and legs that no long function the way they should.

You are now going to meet 44-year-old Øyvind, who needs respiratory support and other assistance.