Hi @soonerfan, Mayo Rochester is my home away from home! So I’m very happy to hear that’s where you’ll be having your stem cell transplant. You’ll be in amazing hands there!
It sounds as though you’ll be using your own cells which makes the journey a bit easier on you. The recovery time is much faster than if having to use a donor’s cells.

We’ve had several members who have had what’s referred to as an autogenic stem cell transplant…using their own cells. You’ve already got the gist of what will happen when you’re finally ready to start the process. You’ll be receiving some injections at the clinic to ramp up your blood production. When the numbers are appropriate you’ll have your cells harvested. That’s very much like donating blood except stem cells will be culled out of the blood as it recycles back to your body. Those cells will then be frozen until you’re ready for transplantation.
Next you’ll have the preconditioning chemo which will basically clean your bone marrow of residual disease. When that’s over, you’ll be infused with your saved blood cells. It’s the same as a blood transfusion and takes about 20 minutes. Pretty anti-climactic considering the hoopla leading up to the event. 😉.
The cells circulate through your blood stream and then like magic, the stem cells know exactly where to go into the bone marrow to set up housekeeping again! It takes some time to recover but so worth the effort in the end!

I mentioned earlier about other members having autologous transplant. This was written by @jstpeachey last summer as she went through the procedure in Mayo-Phoenix. You might like to read through this discussion too.

Since you’re still in treatment back home you’ve got time to prepare. I know this can all sound daunting with so much planning and things to consider. Do you have any specific questions you’d like to ask?

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