Transplant Update

Well this is the first update since my Transplant. It’s all gone well. I met with my consultant yesterday and he described my Myeloma as “Flat”. That’s great news for me. It’s not cured as unfortunately there is no cure at the minute but at the moment it’s not active and it should not return in the near future at least.

I’m not going to sugar coat it; things have been tough throughout the transplant, both physically and psychologically. I struggled particularly with the high dose chemotherapy after which I immediately started vomiting and which did not stop for at least three weeks. I felt terrible immediately after the chemotherapy and as a result can’t remember too much about the transplant itself. I can remember that it was no more difficult than a blood transfusion that took a few hours. They simply fed the stem cells, in four bags, back into me via a drip. I did spend the first few days after the transplant apologising as the stem cells are stored in a preservative and whenever anyone came into my room they were instantly overwhelmed by the smell of either sweetcorn or tomato soup depending on the nature of their smell senses. I also have some damage to a vein in my arm caused by a reaction to the chemotherapy. Its pretty painful but it should sort itself out in time.

I did get an infection when I was in hospital and the doctors did think it would delay me leaving hospital however in the end it cleared fairly quickly and my blood counts returned very quickly meaning that I was allowed home after two weeks. Considering I was expected to be in hospital for up to six weeks that was a real bonus. The hospital stay in general wasn’t a pleasant experience for a number of reasons.

Since coming home I’ve had quite a few bad days when I’ve felt ill and I’m having a real problem with extreme tiredness. I mentioned this to the consultant yesterday and he said it is likely to take me six months to fully recover. This was confirmed by a lady Nicola and I got talking to in the waiting room that also has Myeloma and who also described her transplant and recovery period in the same way I have so if you are waiting for a transplant then I may have given you an idea of what you might expect. At the end of the day it’s all a means to an end although not very nice it is absolutely necessary.

Now I just need to push myself to get out more and build up my fitness and that should help my recovery but for now its all good in the hood 🙂

You’ll also be glad to hear that this will probably be my last rambling for a while. Fingers crossed.