[Janet F]

Janet's Stem Cell Transplant

by Janet F on Mon Oct 09, 2017 7:32 am

My official transplant day was August 17th. Here is my experience.

Day -6

Catheter placement. Not bad at all. With the awake sedation, I’m pretty sure I slept thru part of it. I was little sore. That's all.

Day -5 and Day -4

Daily trips to the hospital for a shot. Feel crappy. Unexpected nausea and achy. Apparently nausea is normal with Neupogen. I hadn’t heard that. Lucky me!

Day -3

Back to hospital for the 4th day. Getting 2 shots today. Feel much better today. Hope I stay that way for another week.

Day -2

Collection day. They got 3 million, enough for this stem cell transplant. Decided not to try for more to freeze for another. Nausea again. They said from the Mozobil (plerixafor). The process wasn’t too bad. Tired from being in bed so long. I was done in 4 hours.

Day -1

Admitted to hospital. 6:45 pm started eating ice. Melphalan given by IV. Done with ice by 8 p.m. It wasn’t bad at all. I never got any mouth sores. They gave me several medications, which included 10 mg dex (evil dex). I did not sleep much at all that night. Ugh!

Day 0

Happy New Birthday! Wide awake at 6 am with practically No sleep. The transplant went easily and quickly. But in the afternoon nausea came back.

Day +1 to +5

Feeling really crappy. Nausea is pretty constant. No diarrhea.

Day +6 to 8

Nausea finally eased up but still there. Feeling better. So hope it stays that way! Blood counts are bottoming out.

Day +2 and Day +10

On both these days, my heart unexpectedly went into atrial fibrillation. They had to move me to the intensive care unit (ICU) on those days for monitoring. They gave me medication and it cleared up. Then back to a regular room. No prior history so we don’t know if it’s from the transplant or a continuing condition.

Up to Day +13

Nausea still there, most of the time. I’m very tired and not much strength. And just very tired of being in the hospital. I never did get diarrhea like almost everyone else.

Day +14

Blood counts are recovering. I’m being released. My catheter is removed and then home. Yay!

Day +15 and Beyond

Great to be home. Since I work from home I was able to get some done on my first day. Did it in small spurts with rests in between.

Each day I get stronger.

Now at Day +53 I’m back to about 90%. Still getting my strength back but I’m able to do most of what I was before. I’m so looking forward being back at 100%.

This week I get my first blood test and bone marrow biopsy. Praying for good numbers!

---

One thing to note. My hair started falling out in the hospital. The shedding was terrible. When I got home, my daughter-in-law buzzed my head, expecting it to all fall out. It didn’t. I wouldn’t have buzzed it if I had known that. So what I have is thin but extremely short. Hopefully it grows back quicker.

All in all it wasn’t too bad. I’m glad its over. I believe it was worth it. Hoping I achieve a good response. I’m recovering quicker than some people have. I’m grateful for that.

I hope this helps anyone that has yet to go thru it

[borber]

Re: Janet's Stem Cell Transplant

by borber on Mon Oct 09, 2017 7:15 pm

Hi Janet,

Congrats on having the transplant behind you! And thank you for sharing your experience, it is helpful.

Thanks!