re: Bone marrow transplant w/chemo - anyone ever done this or know anyone who has?

Best of luck. I have no advice to give you, but I have a niece getting ready to go through a similar procedure at Duke the first of the year, removing her bone marrow, cleaning it, and replacing it. She will be there for 3 montsh.

Good luck and prayers your way.

Praying for you! You can do it!

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Don’t play around with the prevention stuff like breathing exercises and mouth washes

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Forgot about this. When your appetite already sucks, you don’t need thrush/esophagitis making things worse. Use nystatin/magic mouthwash regularly. And make sure to swish and swallow (that’s what she said) to prevent esophagitis, and not swish and spit.

Don’t forget to get immunizations when recommended by your oncologist. Not trying to start a covid pissing match, talking about tetanus/mmr/etc. And make sure family doesn’t take the intranasal flu vaccine just before transplant. Injection is fine.

My brother donated not once but twice to save a woman’s life. Last he heard she is still alive. Unfortunately, he never got to meet her.

I donated 10 years ago, almost to the day, based off a swab taken in 2001 while on campus in Fort Collins. Donation was not bad at all, hope the recipient is doing well but I have no idea how it worked out. If you have the chance, get yourself in the registry.

My only regret was not getting the ‘Bone Donor’ t-shirt I asked for. Seriously though, get in the registry. Prayers for your recovery.

Sister went through this, she is still cancer free six years. All the best, you got this.

Multiple Myeloma?

I am sure others have a similar procedure, but what my mone ended up doing was having her own stem cells harvested they they NUKED her with Chemo then gave her back her cleaned up stem cells. She was never healthy enough to do the bone marrow transplant which was suppose to be a much longer term solution.

I completed an Autologous stem cell transplant in August of last year at MD Anderson. bmela12 is pretty much spot on with what you will experience. I was there during the Texas lockdown for covid. We had to rent an apartment in the medical center area. First week was base line blood work, tests and inserting of my port. Second week was stem cell harvest. Third and fourth week was hospital stay. Fifth and sixth week was spent laying low in apartment, visiting the hospital every day for baseline bloodwork until counts came up.

I'm pretty hard headed and went in with the attitude of making this treatment my b$%^h. I pledged to myself that I would walk the halls and eat something every day no matter how bad I felt and I stuck to it. I was told by the nurses that exercise and nutrition go a long way in shortening the recovery. I don't know what kind of chemo they will give you, but I was advised to eat plenty of ice during the first couple days to minimize throat symptoms. I've had 3 PET's and everything is headed in the right direction. I am currently redoing all of my childhood immunizations as they are erased just as your immune system will be. You are bigger than the treatment and disease. Most importantly, don’t let the procedure overwhelm you mentally. Yes, it’s a ton of crap, but find a project or something to focus on while in the hospital. Hang in there brother. You and your family are in my prayers.

I have nothing to add as far as experience with this, but I do want to say that reading this thread from the beginning has been very inspirational to me. The experiences that some of you have had (and lived to tell about) are truly remarkable. And your willingness to share is also a blessing.

Next time I "think" I'm having a bad day, I will think about this thread and realize that I really have no clue what a "bad day" is compared to what some of you have experienced.

Best of luck to you Mr. Horsemeat.

Wish you the best. I was lucky enough to save a person through transplant. Sign up for Be the Match guys.