Good morning Aislinn, I’ve attached a statement released this morning by Organ Donation and Transplant Ireland (ODTI, the governing body for organ transplantation in Ireland), which is also being sent to all patients active on the transplant list. Thanks, Robyn. pic.twitter.com/icXPGvsbfi
— Irish Kidney Association (@IrishKidneyAs) August 20, 2021
This morning.
Firm but fair.
Yesterday: “It’s Never Too Late”
Sponsored Link
Yeah! Let’s put persons currently smoking back on the list of persons who can receive lung transplants!
I’m a smoker, although I’ve cut down massively to about an 8th* of what I used to smoke :)
(*estimated by days a pack lasts versus pre-cutting back)
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PS… First bit is sarcasm btw :)
Smoking is a personal choice (albeit it one with an addiction element) that comes with potential (and much publicised) consequences. As is the risk of COVID. I received the vaccinations as much to protect those around me as myself. My little bit of civic duty. Hoping to kick the fags too. But I’ve been saying that for a while …
Oh Christ, the cursed fags – been struggling since i started smoking to kick the buggers.
Should have listened to my Dad who predicted that the sooner i gave them up the better as the longer i left it the harder it would be. I’m almost at the extreme end of things and considering stitching my lips shut and wearing boxing gloves for a few weeks. Almost.
I guess it’s Aislinn O’Toole’s choice whether or not she wishes to remain a kidney donor.
I’m off them 9 months now- didn’t find stopping smoking hard but am addicted to nicotine lozenges now.
I am actually finding them harder to stop than the cigarettes?
Well done, based on my failures anyway it is not an easy thing to do. I’d rather be using the lozenges for nicotine than cigarettes and all of the additional toxic crap they contain.
Might head to the chemist so and give them a whirl before I get the needle and industrial thread out.
Keep it up!
I have no real urge to smoke because I was just so disgusted with myself before I stopped- I hired a cessation councillor and we zoom once a week. She is a really nice woman and anytime I am tempted I know I am going to let her down.
Whatever works but yeah- the lozenges help separate the smoking addiction from the nicotine addiction which means you are at least half way. I was tempted to go on the vape but people seem to be worse on that than the fags.
Keep it up! You’ll get there on the other half in time!
That’s interesting. I’d the same problem. After many years smoking, i went on the lozenges and they worked. But i found i needed the lozenges as much as the cigarettes. How i came to get off them was actually the lockdowns and the awkwardness of queuing at a pharmacy. So I went cold turkey (nicotine wise) and after 3 weeks of so, I didn’t think of them again. Off them 6 years now
So you were using the lozenges for near six years? I am really trying to cut down on them myself. I started with the mist sprays but my counsellor said that she had clients who became addicted to them too.
Yep, I was on the lozenges that length.
Allen Carr’s book and cold turkey lads – the solution to nicotine addiction is not nicotine
Lozenges and patches are pushed by big tobacco to set you up to fail.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-smokers-nicotine-products-idUSKBN1A229P
Some of y’all don’t trust big pharma to keep you well, so why would you trust big tobaccy to keep you off the cigs?
Seconded on cold turkey (although I always hated that phrase). I stopped last year one thursday and didn’t have much trouble honestly – more short tempered than usual for around a week but it was much easier than the times I had previously attempted (using patches / lozenges etc) because I think the focus on all of the accoutrements made the emotional complex of quitting into a MUCH BIGGER DEAL in my head. Whereas just stopping was a much simpler mental transaction. That was my personal experience of course, I know that everyone is different, saying that I had a sneaky one or two now that the bars opened back up but I haven’t had a daytime craving (yet!), the connection between alcohol and tobacco is a real difficult duo to separate wow. Best of luck to all other people hoping to quit, now or in the future.
Actually Ronan that has occurred to me- that I have just swapped buying ‘product’ from one bunch of crooks to another.
i got a new job there a few years ago, went for the medical and did the spirometry test. nurse tells me my score is 70 so i’m thinking ‘a solid B – result!’. nah, says the nurse, you have the lungs of a 70 year old man.
i was bleedin mortified – haven’t smoked since.
Ouch!
I did my easting heart beat (52) and stress test and did really well. All down to the regular bicycle use. Still though, one test, does not a pattern make, and I should stop now while things are still good.
“I received the vaccinations as much to protect those around me as myself. ” How exactly are you protecting those around you by being vaccinated. You can still contract the virus (can even become ill and die), and according to the CDC your viral load with Delta will be the very same as the unvaccinated thereby meaning you pose the same transmission risk. But, you do enjoy a little virture signalling when you can…
The CDC have also stated that vaccinated people are less likely to become infected than those who are unvaccinated and that infections happen in only small proportion of people who are fully vaccinated, even with the Delta variant:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html
I don’t know how less likely a vaccinated person is of being infected but some articles I’ve read state that it’s about 3 or 4 times less likely. Also, apparently, a vaccinated person is 8 times less likely of developing covid-19 once infected with the virus:
https://www.mahoningmatters.com/local-news/how-do-covid-infections-differ-in-vaccinated-vs-unvaccinated-people-what-to-know-4191980
If the above is true then it would stand to reason that being vaccinated offers those around you a degree of protection.
That’s why I stopped wearing a seatbelt when in a car, most people who die in crashes are wearing them
Cians looking for a car share opportunity
By being able to reduce the severity/duration of the illness, so that you don’t end up taking up valuable resources in a hospital bed. Is that not protecting others?
Getting vaccinated doesn’t mean you need to stop the behaviours we have learned since March 2020.
“Is that not protecting others?”
No, that’s protecting a hospital and the infrastructure around them.
The loose narrative put forward that a hospital is some magic fairy place where angels work saving lives is total rubbish.
It is a business. Filled with amazing people yes – but a business all the same.
We’ve had 18 months to drastically increase the ICU capacity in our hospitals.
And the government has neglected to do so. And our society has paid the price.
“Getting vaccinated doesn’t mean you need to stop the behaviours we have learned since March 2020.”
I don’t know where to even start with this one…. what is the feckin point in getting jabbed, or any of this rubbish, if things don’t go back to normal?
Since anyone that I know in my age group only got it for that exact reason – the hope of normality.
Oh and for travelling – mad for the flying they are.
‘No, that’s protecting a hospital and the infrastructure around them. ‘
That’s reductive, but I can’t see how you could possibly be arguing that hospitals and their infrastructure shouldn’t be protected in a publc health emergency. Even if the government had increased ICU capacity, that would still be the case.
‘what is the feckin point in getting jabbed, or any of this rubbish, if things don’t go back to normal?’
Is that what you want? A fairy story that everything is going to suddenly go back to normal? Nobody really knows what’s going to happen. Anyone who tells you they do, is lying. The real bad news is this uncertainty is going to be multiplied when it comes to the climate crisis.
We’re not in an emergency Nigel
You don’t seem to be grasping that.
The UK do.
But we’re a broken people here.
Well done now.
Now who’s telling fairy tales?
No fairy tales.
These are the crowds at a music festival in the UK there last weekend. I had a few pals pop over. Completely normal they said.
https://youtu.be/vgia0OVe0UI
We’re ahead of the UK in vaccinations and still were afraid.
We’re broken
Don’t be so melodramatic. We’re being more cautious than the UK. They’re ruled by Tories and living under Brexit, don’t get too envious.
Yeah yeah yeah Tory brexit whatever.
Currently there is 45,353 active Covid infections in Ireland Nigel
There’s 52 people in ICU / severe condition
That’s 0.1%. There is no emergency Nigel.
You’re broken. Fear has broken your ability to rationally think.
I think they’re doing it just to annoy you, and no other reason.
I think you type for no other reason other than you are paid to do so- probably by the keyboard stroke.
Well, you think a lot of things.
Yes darlin I do- including the fact that you do NOT represent people like me with your flowerily cliché victimhood waffle on any level- comprende?
Ummmm did you not just downthread acknowledge that you misrepresented your mental health (through a financial transaction) in order to access a status that you’ve been whinging about their being victimized for monnnnnths now?
That seems like the definition of the stereotype of the faux victimization that you’re accusing Nigel of tbh.
I’ve never claimed to represent anyone but myself, and my Lord Satan, King Of Hell And Master Of The Infernal Dimensions.
Good luck to both of ye in kicking it!
Once I’ve a few bob I’m going the hypnosis route. I know I can be hypnotised after a 40 minute stint on stage at a Paul McKenna show back in the early 90s. So, I’m hoping that’s an indication that the hypnosis to stop the fags will work for me.
Can’t be bothered going on the ecig stuff as that’d cost me more than I am now spending on roll ups.
BTW, a friend of mine did the hypnosis route and it worked for him :)
There is a guy on Harcourt Street who is supposed to be really good- I know several people who went to him and just topped on the spot.
My mate too. Stopped after first visit. Did a few top up visits after, and not smoked since.
acupuncture is good too – takes the cravings off ye like nothing else.
I used to smoke Marlboro- just checked the price- €13.90 a pack and I smoked two a day? That would be now €194.60 a week. An obscene amount of money to be squandering.
Jaysus @SOQ – two packs a day, quitting the smokes is an even bigger achievement. That’s a handsome sum you’re saving, spend it on something nice for yerself.
Insipid how one’s disgust for oneself just perpetrates continual smoking, like being stuck in some kind of infinity loop of disgust that gets worse the more you traverse the loop’s path. Ugh !
@Clampers – lolling at the hypno-caper :)
Yes weird thing is- I love the cross trainer and my GP had to dig out my old paper notes recently?
For a mental health exclusion to the jab a be jab jab- €100- he’s like that- same as the rest.
My wife did the Allen Carr course years ago and has been of them since. About 20 years now.
And she was a die hard smoker – fag in the mouth first thing in the morning like.
Thank god for Broadsheet. Love the way this comment was picked up. Fair play to yiz all and good luck with the gaspers.
allen carr – did he die of lung cancer in the end?
I think he did Scottser
I heard something about him going back on them do see if he could quit again or some rubbish.
Probably not true tbh
I did watch this short clip a few years back and I thought it was a good breakdown of his method.
https://youtu.be/0TL2Vh7goJc
Agree 100% on the ecig faff.
Hypnosis has been mentioned around these parts but I’ve no idea whether I’m susceptible or not. Coincidentally, what humiliation was imposed upon you by McKenna @Clampers?
Hah! Apparently he had me running around the stage telling everyone to leave because there was a hole in the wall out of which water was pouring and filling the room.
I made love to a chair.
And I did something similar while lieibg on the stage floor…. that’s about all I can recall being told :) Of course, I remember nothing of the whole thing! And it was pre-mobile cameras.
I’ve managed to cut out daily smoking from 20/30 a day, but the minute I have a beer, that’s it, all bets are off, but at least that’s only once a week.
Good luck to all trying.
That’s gotta be better than what you were doing @Papi.
Beer is to smoking as the smell of bacon is to vegetarianism !
Vaccinations are incredibly ineffective on those needing transplants or those who have just received them – less than 50% generate any anti-spike antibodies. In addition, transplant recipients were excluded from all major studies, and so there is no real safety data on their use in transplantees.
The risk/reward for covid vaccines is not really there for transplant patients because vaccines are so ineffective for them – all the risk of side effects (which could do much more damage to you) and a very small chance of generating any immune protection against covid.
Cocooning and NPIs are far safer and more effective.
Source on the first bit!?
https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2021/03/05/14/38/quick-tips-and-considerations-for-covid-19-vaccination-in-heart-failure-and-transplant-patients
Summarized here.
Trials to date have been small studies of <1000 people – exact figure is actually 54% who showed antibody response after 2 doses of mRNA vaccines.
They do recommend it still with some caveats – I guess because covid risk to those with heart problems is quite high – however with a ~50% effective vaccine at all and such limited data on safety and side effects, a
While I think the idea of only allowing vaccinated to receive transplants is disgusting and wrong. (We don’t insist the same folk have flu shots for a transplant now do we)
Please don’t rip up your donor cards. That only hurts people waiting for kidneys etc
I’d guess most people waiting for a kidney were already immuno-compromised and it would have made sense for them to be vaccinated.
So it only hurts them and doesn’t stop any of the madness.
Besides, you’ll be dead if they get your organs and then you won’t have to worry about this Covid mess at all. ;)
exactly,
in France you are automatically a donor, you have to specify if you DON’T want to be ..much more sensible
So she tweets that she’s ripping up her organ donation card because “organs are only available to a select few”. A select few? Over 80% of adults (and climbing rapidly)?
This distancing and mask wearing is playing havoc with me. As an ex-smoker (off them 30 years) I have been wont to stand beside, or behind a smoker in the street or the car park when I could, for as long as possible, to the great suspicion of a fag bearer. An aspect of Covid prevention not much aired!!
…for what it’s worth, Alan Carr worked for me…from 50+ a day to zero…about 14 years ago but I must say my father was a great help…he maintained that the first thirty years were the worst, after that he seldom thought of them…
From The Journal on this story “The hospital recommended that if a patient cannot be vaccinated for whatever reason that they be suspended from the donation waiting list until Covid-19 has passed and there is no further risk of infection.”
eh, when the hell do they think that’s going to be now that we have an endemic global virus that vaccines are not 100% against? I can see it now “Sorry Mr Foley, your kidney transplant is postponed indefinitely due to your failure to vaccinate” “But, my doctor advised against me receiving the vaccine due to the risk of blood clots and my heart condition”, “Sorry about that Mr Foley, we’re busy trying to save people from this deadly virus with a 99.7% recovery rate so you will have to wait until the virus is gone”, “And when will that be?” “We’re working towards Spring 2026 at the moment but it will depend on case numbers at that time. Anything above zero will mean no transplant as there would be a risk of you in fellow patient” “But, couldn’t a vaccinated patent infect another vaccinated patient?” “Ah schtop”.
What, you think they’re doing this for fun? Or out of a genuine, if weirdly arbitrary hatred of the unvaccinated? They’re trying to reduce risk to transplant patients. Surely even you must realise that transplant patients are incredibly vulnerable, being unvaccinated is just the cut-off for acceptable risk.
‘“But, couldn’t a vaccinated patent infect another vaccinated patient?”’
If there wasn’t a significant reduction of risk to and from unvaccinated patients, nobody would be getting a transplant at all.
That’s total rubbish Nigel
They carried them out last year when there was no vaccines.
Yes there was reduced numbers. But they still went ahead.
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/news/health/covid-19-organ-transplants-fall-30-in-2020-1.4448030%3fmode=amp
Makes no sense. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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They carried them out that way when there were no vaccines. Now there are vaccines. It only doesn’t make sense if you’re thoroughly invested in in not making sense.
Looks like they’re backtracking anyway
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/hospital-reverses-advice-to-delay-transplants-for-unvaccinated-patients-1.4652303
Sense.
Haha, great headline, Bodger!
Ta, Lilly!
Amazing that naturally acquired immunity from prior exposure doesn’t even get mentioned as a factor in the above correspondence. It mirrors the government’s approach to vaccine roll out in the general population. If a patient has already contracted Covid in the past, in all likelihood they’re going to have more robust immunity than they would gain from any current Covid vaccine.The evidence for that is now overwhelming.