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

HA! Yes, a Wo-man! A much better way to state that!! 😂 And if you get technical I guess I AM a Wo-man!! My chimerism shows I have XY chromosomes of a man. Not female XX.

Joking aside, I wished I’d asked my transplant doctor Tuesday when I had an appointment with him if it would have any bearing on the vaccine reaction. It’s probably too vague to even know that. Weird stuff!
Do you find you have odd questions like that too? Like what are the significant differences when there’s an opposite sex stem cell transplant? I understand the difference between male and female responses to the covid vaccine. Apparently women have a stronger immune system and it can be hormone driven. But if I have a male’s immune system, would I have the reaction of a male?
From information I’ve gathered I also know that doctors try to avoid giving a male a female donor if she’s had a child and especially if she’s had more than one. There’s so much science behind all of this!

An odd thing I’ve found is that I heal incredibly quickly! Whether it’s a burn on the hand, a scratch or abrasion, it’s gone within a day or two!
Do you have any unusual stories?

Haha! I would say you took it like a WO-man! It is interesting. My donor was female....hmmm....

Hi Pam, oh I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling nasty after the second shot. Can you take an Advil or Tylenol? It will help you feel better getting rid of the fever.

I was actually surprised I didn’t have a reaction this time. Apparently it’s pretty common with round 2.
In regard to my story about the shot yesterday, I’m on a FB group where we discuss stem cell transplants. So I posted my little chuckle on there too about my having a male immune system. One of my fellow transplant friends asked me how I was feeling today. She also got cells from a young man and had an easy time with the vaccine. So she was curious as to my reaction. Couldn’t resist telling her, “I took it like a man!” 😅
Hope you feel better soon! Beats getting the virus!! Lori.

Hi Lori—I had my 2nd Pfizer dose on Thursday, after ear surgery for. Cholesteatoma on Tuesday. This one kinda kicked my tail. Fever has been hovering around 101.5 and feel generally unwell. Hope you are able to avoid that! Cute story btw

Hi Lori! All is going well for me. Life truly is an an adventure and never boring! I’ve been very fortunate for my care at the Mayo Clinic and my recovery from MDS. I’ve done very well and was discharged from the hospital almost one week early. I have had some graft vs host issues with liver function so they put me on prednisone and changed my doses on other meds. They went down significantly, however, the last labs were up a little. I hope it was just a blip. My marrow and CD33 are 100% donor and my CD3 is 80%. The doctors are ok with this and say the CD3 should increase in time.

I’m not far from Mayo Jacksonville so the weather has been good to me. Allowing outside activities and meeting friends outside during the pandemic. I can’t imagine having to be closed inside for the winter. It has been helpful that others are also being careful due to the pandemic and I’m not the only one out there wearing a mask.

My hair is coming back and is about 1/2 inch long and it can’t grow fast enough! I’m not sure how long I’ll stand the wigs. The weight loss has brought me to the weight I should be and I hope to stay there. So right now I’m walking and doing some strength exercises to help this along and get toned.

I haven’t felt depressed and look at my cup as 1/2 full and getting fuller all the time. I’ve had lots more energy. I was used to running on a hemoglobin of 7 and with it doubled now, it’s great!

Overall, my transplant was very easy and I’m so grateful. I had a few intermittent very sleepy days in the hospital and a few after I got home. My wonky lab results were asymptomatic so I didn’t feel any different. Once I’m off the tacrolimus, I should be able to get the Covid vaccine and I start my childhood vaccinations next week.

I hope others are doing well through their BMT/SCT. Thank you Lori for keeping the communication lines open.
Gretchen

@waveg ~ Hi Gretchen. Thought I’d pop in for a little follow up to see how you’re doing? I hope all is going well with the transplant and recovery. It would be great to see you on this thread where I’m trying to grab the attention of fellow BMT/SCT patients so we can get some meaningful dialog going to discuss whatever’s on our minds and bodies. Life’s always an adventure isn’t it? How are you fairing during the pandemic? Is it too confining, do you feel depressed? Or are you like me where it gave me another year of a safety net before being exposed to people after the transplant? At least now everyone should be wearing a mask, not just us, right? LOL. Looking forward to hearing from you! Lori.

@edb1123 While GvHD can be a bane to our existence, it is also an integral part of why we received the SCT in the first place. We need that internal battle brought on by the new immune system to attack the cancer that our old system could no longer recognize and control. Look at it more like, Graft vs Leukemia. Or Graft vs Tumor. Unfortunately in the early stages of our transplant the new immune system doesn’t differentiate. It looks at our entire body as an invader needing to be eradicated. That’s why initially we’re on the higher doses of immunosuppressants/anti rejection drugs. They act as an anti inflammatory drug to keep things calm. You’ve heard of the cytokine storm brought on by Covid 19? It’s the same thing when our bodies initially go into hyper drive with the new immune system. That’s why it’s imperative to keep our new immune cells quiet but working that first 100 days. We want them to work but not too aggressively.

My husband always teases me that it’s like a new guard dog sitting in front of me, just waiting for me to make a false move. As time goes one, at some point it will no longer see me as a threat and we’ll live an amicable life together. LOL.

My SCT was the end of June 2019. Until Oct that year I showed no sign of GvHD at all. I had one glimmer that the new system was working in August when CMV, a virus that was brought in with my new cells started showing up on blood tests. My doctor held off on giving me a stronger anti viral and just waited. By the next week, my new system had recognized its old foe and took it out! So that was pretty cool to know it was working.
I was feeling pretty cocky about not having any other issues until we began to realize that there was a bit of concern surrounding this. Was my immune system up and ready to fight for me in the event of a return of the AML? If it’s not reacting to any other stimuli would it be ready for invaders? Later in October my doctor started my taper off Tacrolimus and within 2 weeks I did start to have some issues with my hands and wrists. We were all honestly a bit relieved that there was some indication of activity. Though later on, the next GvHD battle was one of “be careful what you ask for” as my transplant doctor said when tackling this new round. But that was a year ago, it was handled and now I’m in a very steady period. I feel 100% normal!

After the first 100 days, we reach a period where any GvH that comes about is generally no longer considered Acute. Acute GvH can develop quickly and get out of control. Later in our transplants, most anything that happens comes on gradually and sometimes subtlety. That’s why it remains important to report in to your team any time something new creeps into the picture. Keep a little journal of new symptoms which arise. Sometimes a watch and wait then report... But we can’t live in fear of this as it is generally corrected quickly with steroids or other immunosuppressants to get life back under control.

We need to keep a sense of humor, sense of adventure and above all, a positive attitude.
I’m glad you brought this up! I hope others will chime in so we can keep this discussion going.