@dianevw Whooosh…I am trying to wrap my head around your post this morning. Goodness, you and your husband have a lot of medical drama going on right now! No wonder you’re feeling overwhelmed. And please accept my sincerest sympathy over the loss of your son. No mother should ever have to endure that depth of pain.

Ok, let’s break this down a little bit so it’s in digestible bites.
I’m sorry to hear about your own issues with Lupus and Sjogrens. Both of those can leave an impact on the mind and body, leaving you exhausted having to deal with the side effects. It’s so important to take care of yourself during this time as well. Which I know…that’s challenging if you’re having to be your husband’s ‘personal secretary’, taking responsibility for his care as well as your own. That’s a tough situation to be in. If he’s coming up on a stem cell transplant, he’s will need to accept a certain level of responsibility for his after care and his recovery. His medical team will be educating him as well as you. Don’t feel that this is an onus only on you for his care. He needs to be involved…well, I mean he WILL be involved so he has to learn about this.

The what, why and when with your husband’s diagnosis of MGUS and now Multiple Myeloma (MM) isn’t always definable. Blood cancers and conditions can start slowly over time. MGUS (Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance) is a condition caused by the development of altered plasma cells. That condition, in some people, leave them with an increased risk of developing multiple myeloma or other plasma cell disorders over time. There isn’t always rhyme or reason to how or why this happens and there may not be any one thing you can point to. It ‘just happened’.
You mentioned your husband has VA doctors. There may be some link to his medical condition relating to his certain exposures to toxins in the military.

It sounds like your husband is already taking medication to reduce the level of cancer cells in his body. Many patients with MM are able to have an autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) using their own cells to help replenish the body with healthy cells after treatment. It’s not an actual bone marrow transplant(BMT or SCT) because the marrow isn’t being transplanted from a donor to your husband.
Basically what will happen during that procedure is your husband will go through treatment such as he is now. If he reaches remission, his doctors will consider the ASCT.
Some time preceding the transplant, your husband go through stem cell harvesting. The cells are then preserved until he is ready to have the transplant.
Transplant time has him in the hospital receiving preconditioning chemo to clear his body of any remaining cancer cells. Then his own cells will be infused back into his body via an IV (picture a blood transfusion) where the cells will eventually find their way back into his marrow and set up housekeeping again. Within a couple weeks the stem cells will be producing healthy red/white cells and platelets again. Recovery can be slow, the first 3 weeks or so being the most challenging with fatigue, possible nausea, etc.. But after that it is usually a slow, steady progression of regaining strength, stamina and health.

There’s more to it but that’s it in a nut shell. He may have to be in a hospital setting for 4 to 6 weeks or so, depending on the protocol of the hospital where he has the transplant.

The next step would be to meet with a potential transplant team. Do you live far from USC?

@dianevw
Yes, we live in Las Vegas, Nevada and it is a 5 hour drive out to USC. Even if we went elsewhere it will be a drive. I know the Mayo in Arizona, we lived there for a time. It really sounds like we might have to rent an apartment by USC if he will be there a time.