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My Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT/SCT) story: Will you share yours?

Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) & CAR-T Cell Therapy | Last Active: 1 day ago | Replies (564)
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@clareaq

Thank you for your quick reply Lori! I will be having an Allogenic transplant. I will be unable to use my siblings because of age and disease. I am 62 years old. My doctor says I am young and in good health (which I chuckled at) and makes me a good candidate for the transplant. She assures me that they look all over the world to find the best match and one will be found. My hemoglobin is very low which makes my love of gardening difficult but I still go out to the garden every day to do something. It makes me feel better. Knowing I will be unable to garden for a few months is disappointing but of course worth it.

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Replies to "Thank you for your quick reply Lori! I will be having an Allogenic transplant. I will..."
Lori, Volunteer Mentor | @loribmt | May 11 8:55am

Good morning. I expected you’d be having an allogenic transplant but didn’t want to assume anything. 😉. I think you’re a prime candidate for a transplant considering your health and your age. I was 65 at the time and up to 3 weeks before the diagnosis with AML I had been super healthy so the transplant was a no-brainer.

The donor program is amazing. The procurement process scans globally for a match. My donor was a healthy 20 year old male from the US. But I have several friends, whom I’ve met along this journey, with donors from Europe. So hopefully you get a match soon so you can move forward.

A work of caution about gardening, especially within the first year or so after transplant. There is high risk of fungal infections, sometimes fatal. I’m an avid gardener so it was tough when I was instructed to not even pull an errant weed…which is always so tempting! Wear an N-95 mask anytime you’re working with dirt…but even then, ask your team for instructions. At 5 years post transplant, I still wear a mask while working in the garden. Even though we’re given a new immune system with the transplant, it will never be has robust as our original factory installed model. 😉 So we make adaptations for our new life. It’s all good!
Keep me posted! What’s your timeline?

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