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Having my first SCT for multi myeloma and very anxious about what to expect.
I am being admitted in a few days for my first stem cell transplant for multi myeloma. They harvested my own cells for the transplant. I am having extreme anxiety and was hoping to connect with someone who has been through the same type of transplant for multi myeloma. I am really not sure what to expect. How bad will I feel? How fast will I start feeling better? What should I look out for? These are just a few things I would like to ask someone with experience. Please if you have had this type of transplant, tell me your story.
Answers
I'm one of the community champions on this site.
I had this sort of transplant (autologous) about 10 years ago but for a totally different disease - non Hodgkin's lymphoma. It is different to most of the discussions on this forum which relate to allogenic transplants - these use stem cells from a donor. As you will receive your own cells back again you won't need immunosuppressive drugs or be at risk of graft versus host disease.
I was in hospital for three weeks. The conditioning chemotherapy was very tough and I lost my appetite and developed a sore mouth but did manage to keep eating. After the transplant I slept a lot. It didn't seem to take very long for the neutrophils to reappear, indicating the transplant had been successful. Once home, I picked up fairly quickly and ate reasonably well although food didn't really taste right. I was quite weak and it was several months before I went back to work.
Eventually the lymphoma returned and I needed an allogenic transplant five years later but am now fine.
Hope this helps.
With very best wishes,
Sue