Hi everyone,
Me again! I found this blog post that I wrote a while ago now and obviously forgot about it and never shared it! It's very relevant to the current Covid-19 pandemic. It explains why transplantees and immunosuppressed people are more at risk of infections and why it would be so serious if a transplant recipient were to catch coronavirus. It's obviously a worrying time for everyone at the minute, but every day transplantees are at risk of picking up infections and we don't spend our life in fear. So please read my tips, stay safe and check in on the people you love and make sure they're okay!
I've been thinking about what you might want to read about life as a transplantee and I recently became a member of a new transplant Facebook page. This page is from people all over the world, not just UK and it's been really interesting listening to what people are worried about, what their doctors have told them etc.
I wrote a previous post about transplant and mental health, and that post was more about the surgery and the trauma of transplant than the anxiety involved with living as a 'transplantee'.
Transplant and the Immune System
As I have explained before, transplant recipients take medicine to weaken their immune system. Because the new organ is a foreigner in the body, the body tries to attack it. There are 3 different anti rejections that I take and they do different jobs, one prevents the production of T cells (your soldiers of the immune system) and another medicine makes them lazy (so the ones that are on the front line have no guns).
There are 2 reasons why transplant patients have to be wary of germs, 1. is because we are more likely to pick up infections. So you may have a cold and if I caught that cold there's a much higher chance that I would develop something more serious because my body struggles to fight off the cold. 2. is because while my body is busy fighting off your cold, the front line soldiers now have guns and are in the mood for a fight, so they are much more likely to find my heart!
Of course, the longer you've had your new organ, the lower your anti rejections become because your body has sort of accepted the foreigner and allows it a bit more freedom without being attacked. But transplant patients have to take these immunosuppressants /anti rejections forever, because the new organ will never be a 100% match to the body.
So, you can see why it's quite a scary world to live in for transplant patients! People sneeze and don't wash their hands, they eat with their hands and then touch doors etc. And I work in retail! So I interact with people on a daily basis.
Anyway, what I read on this transplant page is really depressing, people ask if they can kiss their loved ones, if they need to wear a mask in their house over Christmas! Therefore I have some top tips, from my experience and also from doctors recommendations.
For the general public and transplant patients:
1. Get vaccinated!
controversial I know, but vaccinations have wiped out entire illnesses. They work, they protect people. And if you're someone who never gets ill, I don't care, there's a thing called herd immunity. So by you being vaccinated you prevent the spread of flu or whatever it may be, and protect the more vulnerable people that you share your town or city with. When normal people get a vaccine or a illness they produce antibodies, immunosuppressed people still make antibodies but not fully. So we could still get flu even if we get the flu jab, so we rely on others getting their flu jab so that they don;t catch it and spread it to us.
The same applies to coronavirus. If immunosuppressed people become infected, our bodies will struggle to fight it off and it can progress into a much more serious illness. We rely on the general public to not catch it and spread it to us, which is also why we've been advised to stay at home for 3 months so that we don't risk coming into contact with it.
2. Clean your hands!
It might sound ridiculous when Boris Johnson tells you to wash your hands for 20 seconds, but it's honestly the best way to prevent the spread of germs. Even when I was only a month post transplant and I went to Ireland for my dad's wedding, the main advice from my transplant team was to keep my hands clean. Eating and touching your nose, mouth and ears is how infection spreads from a surface into your body or from someone else into your body.
Wash your hands after the toilet (don't lie, I know that people don't do it all the time). Wash your hands before your eat, prepare food, and after you touch your mouth or nose. If it isn't convenient for you to wash your hands all the time, like me in work, that's why they invented hand sanitiser. Even in normal times, I sanitise my hands every time I touch a customers phone or if they shake my hand. It may be a sparse commodity at the moment but you if you can, soap and water is the most effective anyway.
3. Stay home if you are sick!
This one is common sense but we now live in a world where people go to work ill, even nurses and doctors. If you are genuinely ill, call in sick to work. Your work mates will thank you for not getting them all sick too! It's selfish to attend parties, work etc when you're ill as the other people there have no say in it. The current government advise is to stay at home unless absolutely necessary for at least the next three weeks. But if you have symptoms such as a cough or fever you shouldn't go out at all for 14 days and you should have someone delivery food and supplies for you.
Stay safe out there everyone, keep others safe by doing as you're told and keeping clean! And my next post will be about how to stay sane during isolation!
Me again! I found this blog post that I wrote a while ago now and obviously forgot about it and never shared it! It's very relevant to the current Covid-19 pandemic. It explains why transplantees and immunosuppressed people are more at risk of infections and why it would be so serious if a transplant recipient were to catch coronavirus. It's obviously a worrying time for everyone at the minute, but every day transplantees are at risk of picking up infections and we don't spend our life in fear. So please read my tips, stay safe and check in on the people you love and make sure they're okay!
I've been thinking about what you might want to read about life as a transplantee and I recently became a member of a new transplant Facebook page. This page is from people all over the world, not just UK and it's been really interesting listening to what people are worried about, what their doctors have told them etc.
I wrote a previous post about transplant and mental health, and that post was more about the surgery and the trauma of transplant than the anxiety involved with living as a 'transplantee'.
Transplant and the Immune System
As I have explained before, transplant recipients take medicine to weaken their immune system. Because the new organ is a foreigner in the body, the body tries to attack it. There are 3 different anti rejections that I take and they do different jobs, one prevents the production of T cells (your soldiers of the immune system) and another medicine makes them lazy (so the ones that are on the front line have no guns).
There are 2 reasons why transplant patients have to be wary of germs, 1. is because we are more likely to pick up infections. So you may have a cold and if I caught that cold there's a much higher chance that I would develop something more serious because my body struggles to fight off the cold. 2. is because while my body is busy fighting off your cold, the front line soldiers now have guns and are in the mood for a fight, so they are much more likely to find my heart!
Of course, the longer you've had your new organ, the lower your anti rejections become because your body has sort of accepted the foreigner and allows it a bit more freedom without being attacked. But transplant patients have to take these immunosuppressants /anti rejections forever, because the new organ will never be a 100% match to the body.
So, you can see why it's quite a scary world to live in for transplant patients! People sneeze and don't wash their hands, they eat with their hands and then touch doors etc. And I work in retail! So I interact with people on a daily basis.
Anyway, what I read on this transplant page is really depressing, people ask if they can kiss their loved ones, if they need to wear a mask in their house over Christmas! Therefore I have some top tips, from my experience and also from doctors recommendations.
For the general public and transplant patients:
1. Get vaccinated!
controversial I know, but vaccinations have wiped out entire illnesses. They work, they protect people. And if you're someone who never gets ill, I don't care, there's a thing called herd immunity. So by you being vaccinated you prevent the spread of flu or whatever it may be, and protect the more vulnerable people that you share your town or city with. When normal people get a vaccine or a illness they produce antibodies, immunosuppressed people still make antibodies but not fully. So we could still get flu even if we get the flu jab, so we rely on others getting their flu jab so that they don;t catch it and spread it to us.
The same applies to coronavirus. If immunosuppressed people become infected, our bodies will struggle to fight it off and it can progress into a much more serious illness. We rely on the general public to not catch it and spread it to us, which is also why we've been advised to stay at home for 3 months so that we don't risk coming into contact with it.
2. Clean your hands!
It might sound ridiculous when Boris Johnson tells you to wash your hands for 20 seconds, but it's honestly the best way to prevent the spread of germs. Even when I was only a month post transplant and I went to Ireland for my dad's wedding, the main advice from my transplant team was to keep my hands clean. Eating and touching your nose, mouth and ears is how infection spreads from a surface into your body or from someone else into your body.
Wash your hands after the toilet (don't lie, I know that people don't do it all the time). Wash your hands before your eat, prepare food, and after you touch your mouth or nose. If it isn't convenient for you to wash your hands all the time, like me in work, that's why they invented hand sanitiser. Even in normal times, I sanitise my hands every time I touch a customers phone or if they shake my hand. It may be a sparse commodity at the moment but you if you can, soap and water is the most effective anyway.
3. Stay home if you are sick!
This one is common sense but we now live in a world where people go to work ill, even nurses and doctors. If you are genuinely ill, call in sick to work. Your work mates will thank you for not getting them all sick too! It's selfish to attend parties, work etc when you're ill as the other people there have no say in it. The current government advise is to stay at home unless absolutely necessary for at least the next three weeks. But if you have symptoms such as a cough or fever you shouldn't go out at all for 14 days and you should have someone delivery food and supplies for you.
Stay safe out there everyone, keep others safe by doing as you're told and keeping clean! And my next post will be about how to stay sane during isolation!
Comments
Post a Comment