[Beacon Staff]

Larry's Stem Cell Transplant

by Beacon Staff on Sun Jul 13, 2014 2:19 am

We're pleased to report that another member of the Beacon community, Larmo222 (aka Larry), has offered to share with us updates about his stem cell transplant.

Larry had his central line put in this past Wednesday, and a few days ago started the stem cell collection process.

Larry joins several other members of the Beacon community who recently have been under­going transplants and documenting the process here for all of us. Indeed, Larry was prompted in part to share updates about his transplant after learning that Beacon columnist Steve Mohr was planning to do so.

The discussion threads with updates about other forum member's transplants can be found here:

Steve Mohr's Stem Cell Transplant
Karen's Stem Cell Transplant
MattSchtick's Stem Cell Transplant

If you will be doing a transplant in the near future and also would like to share your experience, please let us know. We'll be glad to help you do so.

And let's all join in wishing Larry the best for his transplant!

[Joy]

Re: Larry's Stem Cell Transplant

by Joy on Sun Jul 13, 2014 2:41 pm

Good luck with everything Larry! Sending good wishes for a transplant in the easy-as-it-can-be category!

[KimT]

Re: Larry's Stem Cell Transplant

by KimT on Sun Jul 13, 2014 8:20 pm

Good luck, Larry!

I will starting the process soon. My central line will be put in on 7/24. Let me know, Beacon Staff, what I can do to share my story as well.

[Larmo222]

Re: Larry's Stem Cell Transplant

by Larmo222 on Mon Jul 14, 2014 7:42 pm

Hi Beacon followers.

As the Beacon Staff have mentioned, after gaining insights from Steve Mohr, Andy (aka MattSchtick), and Karen documenting their ASCT experiences – thanks to you all so much for that! – I thought I would also try to contribute.

My transplant will be done on an outpatient basis. I hope I am stable enough for that to work out as planned .... We shall see.

So far, I have had my central line catheter put in last Wednesday, July 9, 2014, and returned to the hospital the next day for Cytoxan (cyclophosphamide). I spent the night at the hospital, then returned home Friday.

It's now Monday, and so far I have had very little problem.

I will receive Neulasta [pegfilgrastim] to stimulate stem cell mobilization this coming Wednesday (July 16) and begin blood monitoring in order to schedule cell collection.

That's all I have to report so far.

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes! They are deeply appreciated.

Larry

[Mister Dana]

Re: Larry's Stem Cell Transplant

by Mister Dana on Fri Jul 18, 2014 5:57 pm

Good luck, Larry. I am a few days ahead of you on the schedule. I found the collection, high dose melphalan chemo, and transplant all to be "no problem", and I hope you do, too. I am at day plus 8, and my white cells and most of my platelets are gone. But my hemoglobin is still there, so I am living life, just not in public.

[Larmo222]

Re: Larry's Stem Cell Transplant

by Larmo222 on Wed Jul 23, 2014 5:25 pm

Mister Dana,

Thanks. It looks like my WBC count has jumped from near zero to 2.3 overnight so, assuming it reaches 5 by tomorrow, I will going in for collection Friday.

Periodicaly I'm experiencing a rather intense throbbing pain in the lower back which started yesterday, and a general achyness..

I'm curious if anyone has had pain just before collection.

Good luck on your journey, wish you the best! I'll be at that bend in the road soon too.

[Joy]

Re: Larry's Stem Cell Transplant

by Joy on Wed Jul 23, 2014 6:05 pm

Hi Larry,

Yes, I experienced that and took the advice of others on this forum and took Claritin [loratadine]. For some reason, it seems to stop the throbbing bone pain for some people. You may want to run it by your doctor.

[Larmo222]

Re: Larry's Stem Cell Transplant

by Larmo222 on Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:13 pm

Hi Joy,

Thanks for that info, I will pursue that.

[Boris Simkovich]

Re: Larry's Stem Cell Transplant

by Boris Simkovich on Wed Jul 23, 2014 11:38 pm

Hi Larry,

I hope the final preparations for your stem cell collection go well.

Following up on what Joy wrote, here are two forum threads with information on how people have addressed pain during the stem cell mobilization and collection process:

"Neupogen and bone pain (SCT prep)," discussion started Sep 21, 2013

"Tylenol for Neupogen bone pain - dosage?," discussion started Jan 14, 2014

[MattSchtick]

Re: Larry's Stem Cell Transplant

by MattSchtick on Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:40 am

Good luck with the collection Larry. To be honest, it's not that much of a drama, it's just really boring watching and waiting for that little bag of stem cells to fill up. My advice is don't drink any tea or coffee that morning or you will be needing to get the bed bottle more often, and take a book or an e-reader or laptop to keep yourself amused. It just felt like a very long day to me.