COVID-19 and Transplant Patients

@joyces,Hi, All I can say is I do understand I too as a Heart Transplant recipient went thru similar thoughts about this new organ in my chest. I went from working a job I loved to wondering if I could ever feel normal again. One of the first thoughts was the fact that someone had to die for me to live. I went thru a very guilty feeling that I didn't deserve this Heart if someone had to die. Well it was my Pastor that turned my mind around. He pointed out that person was going to not survive what ever caused there death but what a wonderful gift it was that at least they could help someone else maybe a few people. I was thinking about it the wrong way. That person died wither I got a heart or not.

Some how my computer went crazy here is the rest

That person died wither I got a heart or not. So it was an eye opening way to look at it.

On the fact that He has issues on weakness and a lack of drive to get better. I will admit at first i thought i would recover much faster than I did but after talking to other transplant patient's and realized that I will get stronger if I work at it. I am a little over 2 years post transplant and feeling more normal everyday. Walking 4+ miles 5 days a week and just the other day built a bench I really needed in my shed. Today i did some other maintenance that was much needed around the house. Playing Golf again etc. Yes I still cant do everything I could do 5 years ago but I can see its up to me to achieve goals in the future. I also remember that the reason I needed a Heart in the first place was causing me a version of PTSD. Yes I could do more physically but with the constant fear of my pacemaker having to Shock me back into normal Rhythm.

I really hope and Prey that something will spark an interest in Him to want his life back. I do know that I was checked out by a Psychiatrist and at least at Mayo is a member of the team. Particularly in the beginning prior to transplant. I'm also am surprised that the team wont address your concerns also. I know my Wife was there and required for me to even get a transplant so maybe if you say something to the team they will address it. It may be tough to give a little tough Love but I prey he realizes that you really care and want him to get better.

I hope you Have a Blessed Day
Dana

This was interesting, but a bit dated.

This page from the NephJC, nephrology journal club, discusses the common questions transplant professionals as well as transplant patients may have with respect to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).
http://www.nephjc.com/news/covidtx

This was interesting, but a bit dated.

This page from the NephJC, nephrology journal club, discusses the common questions transplant professionals as well as transplant patients may have with respect to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).
http://www.nephjc.com/news/covidtx

Meniere's is much more than simply not hearing. It offers severe distortion (you can hear that someone is speaking, but it's just whispery or raspy noise sans actual words) and recruitment (sharp noises or even someone rattling paper can slice painfully through your head). Worst of all, the degree of ability to hear fluctuates from hour to hour. Someone you could understand yesterday is impossible to decode today. Electronic things like phones and TV make the distortion far worse. I first had serious trouble with Meniere's about 40 years ago; after four years of crises (12-15 hour vomitfests) I had lost all hearing and balance function on my right side. That ear was declared not aidable 35 years or more ago. I got the monster shoved into the closet, but must not have nailed it tightly shut, as he got out a year ago when I went bilateral after a remission of over 30 years. At first it was only inability to hear, but then it became daily visits of such vertigo that you simply must lie down wherever you are, hard cement floors included, and not move until it passes hours later. Then the vomit fests returned. Each crisis means that I've lost even more hearing/balance because each crisis kills the tiny hair cells.

I had started wearing an aid in my left ear a couple of years ago due to age-related deafness. It has been adjusted several times as my hearing has changed quickly during the past year. On really bad days, I simply cannot tolerate the explosions of my dog's toenails tapping across our laminate flooring or my husband crumpling a bit of paper, let alone when my large dog barks. Yikes! On those bad days, I can't hear anything useful even with the aid turned up to the max, but the recruitment is downright hurtful. I know that aids and smartphones can work together to pipe the sound directly into your ear, but we have zero cell reception where we live and our WiFi isn't strong enough to enable use of a smartphone. My only hope for phone calls is that Marty will be willing to listen and translate for me, but he gets very annoyed at being asked to do this. We virtually don't converse, as he gets very angry when I misunderstand something or flat can't decode anything. I've relied on lip reading to back up what little I've heard for years, so today's masks are an additional challenge.

@zon Thank you for posting this link. a very interesting read. Just a few days ago, my husband, who is a kidney transplant recipient, expressed that the respiratory illness he had back in January might indeed have been COVID-19 before it really had taken hold. Both he and his son had similar illnesses about the same time, and they have individually come to think that they were infected. Fortunately both are well again, but it does make one wonder if there are other situations like that, out there?
Ginger

@zon Thank you for posting this link. a very interesting read. Just a few days ago, my husband, who is a kidney transplant recipient, expressed that the respiratory illness he had back in January might indeed have been COVID-19 before it really had taken hold. Both he and his son had similar illnesses about the same time, and they have individually come to think that they were infected. Fortunately both are well again, but it does make one wonder if there are other situations like that, out there?
Ginger

Meniere's is much more than simply not hearing. It offers severe distortion (you can hear that someone is speaking, but it's just whispery or raspy noise sans actual words) and recruitment (sharp noises or even someone rattling paper can slice painfully through your head). Worst of all, the degree of ability to hear fluctuates from hour to hour. Someone you could understand yesterday is impossible to decode today. Electronic things like phones and TV make the distortion far worse. I first had serious trouble with Meniere's about 40 years ago; after four years of crises (12-15 hour vomitfests) I had lost all hearing and balance function on my right side. That ear was declared not aidable 35 years or more ago. I got the monster shoved into the closet, but must not have nailed it tightly shut, as he got out a year ago when I went bilateral after a remission of over 30 years. At first it was only inability to hear, but then it became daily visits of such vertigo that you simply must lie down wherever you are, hard cement floors included, and not move until it passes hours later. Then the vomit fests returned. Each crisis means that I've lost even more hearing/balance because each crisis kills the tiny hair cells.

I had started wearing an aid in my left ear a couple of years ago due to age-related deafness. It has been adjusted several times as my hearing has changed quickly during the past year. On really bad days, I simply cannot tolerate the explosions of my dog's toenails tapping across our laminate flooring or my husband crumpling a bit of paper, let alone when my large dog barks. Yikes! On those bad days, I can't hear anything useful even with the aid turned up to the max, but the recruitment is downright hurtful. I know that aids and smartphones can work together to pipe the sound directly into your ear, but we have zero cell reception where we live and our WiFi isn't strong enough to enable use of a smartphone. My only hope for phone calls is that Marty will be willing to listen and translate for me, but he gets very annoyed at being asked to do this. We virtually don't converse, as he gets very angry when I misunderstand something or flat can't decode anything. I've relied on lip reading to back up what little I've heard for years, so today's masks are an additional challenge.

Reply to JK, volunteer monitor: My husband is five years younger, just turned 73 (I'll be 78 in a few weeks). He was active in spite of back problems/pain, low kidney function, and dialysis three nights a week, but retired when he got his transplant and hasn't done anything except lounge in his recliner (which increases the back pain and has caused bone loss in his hips). He reads, watches TV, eats all meals in the damned recliner, spends his days there, except when he has so much pain he lies down on the couch to watch TV.

Apparently, Portland's Legacy Good Sam has a stellar record/does lots of transplants and has med dosages pretty well dialed in. Again, he's only had two small changes in meds, one soon after transplant and one a couple of years ago, both small reductions in dosage. He takes mycophenalate and tacrolimus in addition to prednisone; I don't know which causes the hand tremors, but they a permanent feature of one of the meds. Because he's never had even a hint of rejection, we certainly aren't in a position to complain about the meds that make that possible!

I feel that this marvelous gift of a kidney that should have made his life whole again is being wasted. Due to almost total lack of inactivity, he's gained 20 pounds, which only increases the back pain. Because I have Meniere's and zero normal balance, I'm very familiar with the fact that imbalance alone causes back pain; if I have to stand in one place for any time, I have dreadful pain because I have to work so hard to avoid tipping over. The excess weight and imbalance are two of the reasons that the pain mgmt. clinic insisted he needed to obtain some level of fitness.