Bio: Mari Teitelman, 59, has spent the past 16 years in the mental health/managed-care field and works for WellPoint Behavioral Health. A native of the Chicago area, she grew to love Colorado during summer camp visits and ski trips. After getting a bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a master’s in social work from the University of Chicago, she moved to Denver in 1969.
Teitelman is a workout fanatic and loves sports but has been plagued with kidney problems since she was in her 20s. Despite her efforts to keep the disease at bay, she got steadily worse until her doctor said the next step was a kidney transplant.
Both her brothers agreed to be donors, but younger brother Andy Teitelman, who lives in Chicago, was a match. She got the transplant in June 2004 and was back on a spinning bike seven weeks later.
The Challenge: “When my doctor (nephrologist Dr. Melvyn Klein) told me I’d need a transplant, he said I’d probably be going to the U.S. Transplant Games one day,” Teitelman says. “I thought he was making it up; I didn’t know there was such a thing.”
After her transplant, she learned about the Kidney Foundation and its activities, including the games, which feature a variety of Olympics-style events. It had been 18 months since her surgery and three years since she was in a swimming pool, but Teitelman decided to take the plunge and start training.
On the second anniversary of her transplant, she won five medals in swimming at the U.S. Transplant Games in Louisville, Ky.
How She Did It: “At the gym is the place I feel the healthiest,” says Teitelman, who alternated swimming and cycling to train for the games. In a typical week, she takes three spinning classes, lifts weights once and swims twice.
She has loved sports since she was a kid but didn’t get serious about exercising until she turned 40 and stopped smoking. She went through a series of phases that included bicycling, weight lifting and water aerobics before finding her passion, spinning. “I love it because you don’t have to wear a helmet or worry about flat tires or falling off. You just ride.”
Still Working On: “I still struggle with the fact that this could go down the tubes,” she says of her condition.
Since the transplant, she has had additional related surgeries on her hands as well as oral surgery. She takes 40 pills a day that cost her $350 monthly. “I worry about the unexpected costs I might have and the cost of medicines. I want to be able to retire and be able to enjoy the years I have left.”
Best Advice: “Don’t use any health issue as an excuse not to pursue a healthy life. I would be depressed if I couldn’t exercise. Just do what you can do, and don’t compare yourself to others,” she says.
-Suzanne S. Brown
