Christmas tree in the house post stem cell transplant

Ali

My husband is day +38 post bone marrow transplant. We've been advised to avoid flowers and plants in the house due to risk from spores. Does anyone know if this applies to real cut Christmas trees? Thank you.

Hayley_Anthony Nolan

Hi Ali

My name is Hayley and I am the nurse specialist in the patient experience team, thank you for posting on the forum. I am not sure if having a real Christmas tree would be a problem, it is not something I have been asked before and I am sure that there are no hard and fast rules for this. I would say that it is fine but I would suggest that you discuss this with your husbands transplant team to get their opinion as they are the ones giving you advice on his post transplant care.

I am sorry that I cant be more helpful but please feel free to post on here or contact us if you have any more questions or concerns

I wish your husband well in his recovery.

Best wishes
Hayley

SueP

Hi Ali,
I'm a new community champion. I had a cord blood stem cell transplant in late October 2013. We had a real, cut Christmas tree that year - it never occurred to us that it would be a problem but we weren't warned against flowers either and I was given lots of those when I came out of hospital! If you check with your husband's transplant team, I do hope you get the go ahead but have a lovely Christmas regardless of the type of tree you have!
Sue

Ali

Thank you Hayley and Sue. As a newbie to the community it is so reassuring to know that I can ask questions (albeit ones that haven't been asked before and may seem trivial) and receive such a prompt response. My husband is a christmas fanatic and trying to plan and shop from his hospital bed is great motivation. A real christmas tree is such a key element for him so fingers crossed his transplant team say we can have one (or three) in the house!

Ali

We have had a response from my husband's consultant. Unfortunately, we absolutely must avoid a real christmas tree, holly, mistletoe, poinsettias etc.

SueP

What a shame! A good job you asked. But I'm sure at this stage in your husband's treatment you're used to changing or adapting plans at short notice so you'll just have to hit the shops / online and get some really classy artificial Christmas trimmings!
With best wishes to both of you,
Sue

Dieseldrinker62

Hi Ali,

That's really useful to know, particularly for those who are also in the early days post transplant. I do recall being told to avoid gardening and cutting the grass whilst I was recovering and was lucky enough that my boys helped out doing that for me till I was able.

I guess the problem is that with anything grown outside there is a risk of mould, fungus and fungal spores being brought into the home which would present a risk to your husband, so I can understand the advice your husbands team has given you.

I had my transplant just after Christmas in 2013 so that Christmas was very low key in our house as I was feeling quite ill due to the chemo I'd had pre-transplant. Hopefully your husband will be recovered enough to enjoy this Christmas and even though you can't have a real tree there are some good looking artificial ones out there and perhaps a scented candle will help bring the smell of Christmas into your home.

Either way enjoy Christmas, you both have every reason to celebrate.

Regards,

Steve

Martinmaylam

Hi Ali, I had had stem cell transplant November 2015, came out of hospital 3 weeks before Christmas. We were advised not to have a live Christmas tree much to our disappointment but my wife found a really nice artificial one that substituted very well. Good luck with your husband's recovery. Martin

TJM

Hi Ali this is very interesting, my hubby is +61 days today post transplant (AML) I was going to buy a pointsetta and some holly, we have artificial tree already, thanks for sharing this and good luck to your hubby in his progress.
Tracey xx