Will soon have a Bone Marrow Transplant: What can I expect?

Good morning @martetom, Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. For your first time posting you’re jumping right in with a biggie! If you’re at the point where you’re ready for a BMT you’ve already gone through a rough patch in your life. If you don’t mind my asking, what medical adventure led you to needing a bmt?
There are different types of Stem Cell/Bone Marrow transplants. The most common being Autologous, using your own cells or allogenic, using cells from a donor. When being able to use your own cells generally the pre-conditioning is shorter, recovery is faster and the length of time required at the hospital is less. The cells already recognize the body so there is no concern for rejection.
The allo transplant, using cells from a donor, requires a longer preconditioning treatment, recovery is slower and the usual required time at the transplant location is at least 100 days. There can be some challenges with the new cells wanting to play nice with its host…your body…but these are all worked around and the gift is a second chance at life! Definitely worth the journey!

With both transplants, there is nausea and fatigue. But, as you’ve most likely already experienced if you have a blood cancer, this passes.

We have a number of shared stories in a discussion I prompted after my transplant. I’d love to have you meet some fellow BMT survivors in the group: We’re all more than willing to help you out in any way we can. Please meet: alive, @waveg @edb1123 @lisal64 @pamh480 @secglc2 and others in the group!
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/my-bone-marrow-transplant-bmt-story-will-you-share-yours/
Do you know the type of transplant you’ll be having?

Hi Lori. Thanks for responding to my message. The type of transplant will be Bone Marrow Transplant Autologous.

Hi @martetom You’ve asked some very good questions about a bone marrow transplant. Is it painful, uncomfortable? What about the chemo, and what to expect for side effects?
With the Autologous transplant, being able to use your own cells, the journey is a little less arduous than with a transplant using cells from a donor because your cells and body are familiar with each other. With cells from a donor it’s a little more complicated.

Your own stem cells will be harvested and preserved to be re-infused into your body after the chemo has prepared your marrow for the transplant. All of this happens through a port to make it easier for you. And the transplant itself takes usually less than a half hour. It’s given just like a blood transfusion. Pretty anticlimactic considering the buildup. ☺️

Generally an Auto transplant such as yours, will require 1 or 2 treatments of the preconditioning chemo. That is a strong chemotherapy treatment which cleanses the defective marrow from your bones and gets them ‘squeaky clean’ so that when your harvested cells are replaced, they have a healthy new start.
Once transplanted, it takes a couple of weeks for the cells to engraft, basically set up housekeeping in your marrow again.

During that time you’ll feel weak, fatigued, most likely nauseated, possibly have some tummy issues and sores in your mouth. That sounds awful but it is managed nicely with medications. The transplant teams of doctors and nurses do their best to keep their transplant patients comfortable and safe.

Safety to avoid infection is paramount so you’ll have directions for foods to avoid, the need to wear masks and cleanliness of the area around you. Those instructions are usually given in informational sessions before a transplant.

You’ll also be required to stay in or near the hospital where the transplant takes place for around 6 weeks and need a dedicated care giver to accompany you.

What I’d like to do is have you read this accounting from @capthondo who recently had a Auto transplant at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. I think you’ll find his journey inspiring.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/747475/
His story and others are in this discussion: Want to talk about Multiple Myeloma
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/multiple-myeloma-299aae/?pg=28#comment-747589
What blood disease is prompting your need for a bone marrow transplant?

My husband will also receive a bone marrow transplant in Feb. for MDS. We are very anxious especially since we had been told that he wouldn't be a candidate earlier in this process since re had a infection after his first round of heavy chemo and it left him quite weak and mentally disabled. But he has done super with the help of the hospital physical therapist and social worker and is now on target. A lot of prayers have been answered. We have been fully informed of risk and feel that this is the only hope for any kind of cure and some sort of normalcy in the future.
At the present time we are just waiting for his counts to come up from his last chemo treatment and keep him infection free. We have had all the pre test done and all are good. The donor marrow is on schedule to arrive also in early Feb. All systems a go. For anyone with this diagnosis it was very scary but hopefully will be worth it all. take the risk.

I’m so happy he can go through with the transplant! It is daunting to face this with the unknowns. But it is also an opportunity for a second chance at life.

For me, it was my only option and I would not be here now if I hadn’t gone ahead with bone marrow transplant. I feel amazing and just passed the 3.7 year mark! So I’m a cheerleader now for anyone about to undergo this unique journey.

If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to pop in here! There are several of us who have had allogenic stem cell transplants and can fully appreciate what your husband and you are going through. The life a caregiver isn’t easy either. ☺️

Do you live near the clinic which will be doing the transplant? Are you all set with lodging?

We are about 30-40 min and they are going to let us try and do the pre transplant chemo as an outpatient especially since he had such a horrible experience with the hospital during his infection stay. He will be staying in the hospital after the transplant though for closer monitoring.

Oh I really hope everything goes well for him this time. It may be different for him because he’ll be in better starting position, having gone through chemo before and in remission right now.
Keep me posted, ok? Give your husband an ‘air hug’ for me! No germs. 🙃

He isn’t quite in remission yet because his white count isn’t even back to 1 yet so Fri he will receive an injection to help out with that and also platelets and possible red blood cells again. So my concern was that we get the count up and then again knock it back down. Oh his bone marrow biopsy so far didn’t show any blasts. But we do have almost 3 wks to go. The hardest thing about all this is that are kids and grandkids are 4 hours away and we were able to see at thanksgiving but not since because of all the crazy stuff out there. FaceTime a lot.

I didn’t realize he just finished a chemo round. Sounds like an injection of Neulasta coming up. Has he had that before? Works great to bring up that white count but if he has some discomfort make sure he takes some Claritin…that helps with the bone pain. I remember my last round of chemo and what felt like forever until the transplant! All I wanted was to stay healthy for that last month! I think that was the only time I actually felt anxious.

No blasts is a great sign! Reminds me of a corny joke between me and my transplant team… Life’s a blast until you find some in your blood. 😅 Limited audience for that humor.

The separation from family is tough but I promise it gets better. It’s crucial during the next few months to avoid infection whether viral, bacterial or fungal, at all cost. He’ll be back to big hugs in no time! ☺️

Love the joke so true. Interesting Claritin never heard of that. Will be getting some just in case. Yea he will be back for big hugs that why we are staying away for the big picture. Thanks for conversations