Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the love, prayers and support on sharing that I have tested positive for Covid. Many of you are just as surprised as we were, given how isolated we are/have been, except for medical appts. Are we nervous? Yes. Are we scared? Yes. Do we know how my body will handle an infection immune compromised? No. Do we have a lot of questions? 100% yes.

It’s 5:30 am as I write this and I just signed the consent to receive plasma. Hopkins is currently only offering this to mostly two groups of people: transplant patients and immunocompromised for other reasons, so I am able to receive it. It will help my body fight the infection. As a transplant patient it is not without risk to introduce new antibodies into the system, but all teams gave the go ahead and feel the benefits outweigh the risk. As this is a blood product, there is always a risk of a reaction but they are going to watch very closely. Prayers appreciated.

Speaking of the heart..what do we know/not know?

We are doing an echo, CT scan and I’m getting troponins drawn and an EKG every 4 hours to watch for even the smallest change. So far, the heart is looking good. Working a little harder, but doing well, with a slightly higher BP/HR.

Does Covid increase my risk of rejection? Not much is known specific to Covid, but any time your immune system is activated for any infection, it increases the risk of rejection.

Will they check with another cath/biopsy? TBD. I was actually scheduled for one next Tuesday but they generally do not want to take Covid+ patients to the lab because it’s not negative pressure meaning more risk of aerosol particles, thus exposing others. It requires the lab to be shut down and disinfected, thereby limiting access for critical patients. They will make the decision in the days ahead. It is likely I will remain inpatient until they can do a biopsy/cath likely when I test negative. This likely will not be a brief admission.

What else are they planning? I have had labs drawn pretty much every two hours for a variety of tests, per cardiomyopathy’s guidance. They also started me on a broad spectrum antibiotic until blood cultures result in case there is another infection anywhere else. They are still deciding about giving me some other medications for COVID. They also have to pull back on some of my anti-rejection meds to give the ability a little help to fight Covid.

It’s certainly a lot of coordinated care and transplant makes it way more complicated. But they are providing the same great level of care.

Symptomatically, overnight dealing with a lot of chest tightness and nausea but both are being managed.

One day at a time…because Hope Wins.