COVID-19 and Transplant Patients

Posted by jolinda @jolinda, Mar 14, 2020

As a kidney transplant recipient I have been extra vigilant/worried about protecting myself as COVID-19 spreads. Like most transplant patients I am used to washing my hands, carrying hand-sanitizer, avoiding sick people, getting flu shots, etc. The COVID-19 outbreak has caused me to take additional steps to try to remain safe but I am worried for my health. I would like to hear what you are doing to stay safe and how you are feeling.

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@jolinda

@amyintucson
I'm on the fence with the same concern. My housekeeper is an independent business owner who comes in once a month for deep cleaning. I am contemplating offering to pay her for a few months but not having her clean. This solution would give her a much needed paycheck and allow me to reassess as COVID-19 is better understood. I'd rather be safe than sorry. Thoughts?

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Thinking the same re paying. She won't want us to do "pay her" so perhaps we'll phrase it as a gift.

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@jolinda

@amyintucson
I'm on the fence with the same concern. My housekeeper is an independent business owner who comes in once a month for deep cleaning. I am contemplating offering to pay her for a few months but not having her clean. This solution would give her a much needed paycheck and allow me to reassess as COVID-19 is better understood. I'd rather be safe than sorry. Thoughts?

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If you can afford it, I think this would be the right thing. I believe you will be blessed beyond measure. Also, you will not be in the fear of being compromised and getting sick.

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paying her even if she did clean your house is really a good Idea. I am doing same in my house in Kuwait..they need money during these days..

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@jolinda

@amyintucson
I'm on the fence with the same concern. My housekeeper is an independent business owner who comes in once a month for deep cleaning. I am contemplating offering to pay her for a few months but not having her clean. This solution would give her a much needed paycheck and allow me to reassess as COVID-19 is better understood. I'd rather be safe than sorry. Thoughts?

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@jolinda Our cleaning woman came yesterday. Our son was concerned about this and we have given it some thought. She is due to come again in two weeks but we will probably just pay her and have her not come. She obviously is in contact with a lot of other people, and she has grown children and grandchildren who I suspect she may still be in close contact with. It just is not worth it.
JK

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@dfenderso

Any transplant patients here who are also healthcare providers? As of now, I have 1 week off, when who knows. I'm working in a county where we have 8+ confirmed cases and up to 100 others under consideration. I work as a nurse practitioner in both a busy hospital and in a busy outpatient clinic. I am on a Cellcept/sirolimus/prednisone regimen. I know I am part of a high risk population, and likelihood of more severe symptoms in the immunocompromised is high. My employer told me to wear a mask and stay out of the hospital. A mask alone is not so reassuring to me, nor 100% evidence-based given so many unknowns. Our clinic currently has no policy in place for adequate screening of patients, and we have 100+ patient coming and going from our clinic daily. I feel like I am being pulled in two directions between self preservation and job preservation. As health care providers, we are trained to more or less "do and die." We are made to feel guilty if we make a selfish decision. But frankly, I'm currently scared to go to work and feel like I need to be selfish right now. Any input, thoughts, or words of reassurance?

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Don’t know when or what kind of transplant you had but with those immune suppressants you know you are very high risk. Please stay home, take care of yourself, don’t risk exposing yourself &/or exposing others to something that could be avoided. I’m nearly 15 years post pancreas transplant and I’m stage 4 CKD listed for kidney transplant. My husband has asthma. We are both in our 60’s and staying home. Looking into pick up &/or grocery delivery options. As others have pointed out already, you can’t take care of others if you don’t take care of yourself first.

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@contentandwell

@jolinda Our cleaning woman came yesterday. Our son was concerned about this and we have given it some thought. She is due to come again in two weeks but we will probably just pay her and have her not come. She obviously is in contact with a lot of other people, and she has grown children and grandchildren who I suspect she may still be in close contact with. It just is not worth it.
JK

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@contentandwell I hope you will consider gifting her the same amount you would have paid her. It's possible she may have several clients cancel her services, and will need to get by.
Ginger

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@gingerw

@contentandwell I hope you will consider gifting her the same amount you would have paid her. It's possible she may have several clients cancel her services, and will need to get by.
Ginger

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@gingerw Yes, we always pay her the regular amount. We have done that when we have been away on vacation also. It is our choice for her to not come so I feel obligated to maintain her income.
JK

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@wildcat, I want to invite you to this discussion where you can meet other transplant recipients and join the conversation about dealing with the coronavirus. You will meet other international recipients, too.
Tell us about how you are protecting yourself in Scotland.

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Just last night my husband and I were talking. He is a kidney recipient, and currently lives 800 miles away, working to retirement. His flippant remark that he will send me to do the shopping etc when he gets here hit me wrong. While he is on immunosuppressants, he failed to understand that my autoimmune conditions also place me in an at-risk group, along with age.
Ginger

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@gingerw

My husband is a kidney recipient. Right now we are 800 miles apart, as he wraps up escrow on the sale of his condo, and finishes out his job of 40 years before retiring. I find it pretty interesting that I haven't had to nag him about cleanliness, which has happened in the past. He is much more aware of everyday precautions [handles on the gas pumps, doors, shopping carts, etc]. He has access to 99.5% pure alcohol, and I will be creating homemade hand sanitizer when he comes up in 10 days, for him to take back. I am doing what I can to alleviate stress he is under with all the changes he is going through. More than likely, the severe respiratory infection he had in Feb served as a wake-up call to him to not be so cavalier about things!
Ginger

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One very important thing to strengthen our immune systems is to avoid ALL processed foods. I cook from scratch for the most part, don't buy anything that has a long list of ingredients, many of them various chemicals. I've done this forever. We also almost never eat out. My daughter never had colds/flu...until she moved out at 24, started eating packaged foods, and had so many respiratory infections that her insurance dumped her. All that was 26 years ago.
My husband traveled, doing nine trade shows in the outdoor industry every winter, some of them back-to-back. Days of driving, followed by other exhibitors and the public all hacking, sneezing, coughing. He's a brittle diabetic and, during those years, had very low kidney function. I pre-cooked meals for him to heat up in the microwave in his room; he made sandwiches and took fresh fruit for lunches. In spite of his health issues, he never, ever had even a sniffle all those years! He quit doing shows for the company when he went on dialysis, subsequently got a kidney transplant six years ago and, of course, is on immunosuppresents. He's never had a cold or flu since the transplant. We quit doing anything other than simple hand washing 5½ years ago.
Avoiding the additives and chemicals in processed foods is a huge step towards staying safe. Cooking many things from scratch is not terribly difficult. I do use a few canned items, like tomato paste (not sauce, which is full of salt) that have nothing other than the food itself. Naturally, I avoid any canned item that has salt. Due to his diabetes and both of our kidney issues, I avoid using salt, sugar, and fat in everything I prepare. Making pasta sauce from canned tomato paste only requires adding herbs and enough water to yield the right consistency, with a pinch of sugar to bring out the natural tomato flavor. How much more difficult is that than heating bottled sauce that's full of chems and salt, perhaps sugar?

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