Stem Cell Transplant all out patient?

Your post is hard to understand. I see you are looking for a match. Mayo Clinic will be searching. Once they have matches, you will be notified. Was a bone marrow biopsy done?
At Mayo you can go to the subject line above and put Stem Cell Transplant. Lori will reply to you as she had her transplant at Mayo Clinic Minn.

Welcome to Mayo Connect, @upnorth94. You’re about to embark on an adventure of a lifetime…the goal, being a 2nd chance at life. I had my BMT at Mayo-Rochester almost 6.5 years ago and I can tell you from experience you’ll be in the most amazing care with the doctors and BMT teams. I’m now 71, healthy, active and enjoying my gift of life.

To answer your question, yes, the BMT/SCT process is ‘mostly’ outpatient. There will be a few days required to stay in the Methodist Hospital in the BMT unit, affectionately referred to as Station 94. (Or 9-4). There are a couple of days with the preconditioning and then a day post transplant. After that you will be allowed to convalesce in your ‘home away from home’. However, there are daily trips back to Station 94 for followups, labs and infusions if needed.

You are provided phone numbers to call and if needed you will be able to return to St 94 immediatly as an in-patient if necessary. I know, Out-patient can sound scary if you’re used to being an in-patient for your cancer care as I was.
But I want to assure you, you’re incredibly well attended! You’re not just dismissed to fend for yourself after transplant. There is a science behind the out-patient recovery which I found truly beneficial.

My husband and I set up ‘our temporary new home’ in a 2 bedroom, 2 bath suite, full kitchen, at a hotel two blocks from the Clinic, about 2 blocks away.
Being able to recover in a homelike setting had the advantage of me not feeling like a patient! My husband had food/snacks prepped for me in the fridge. So I could nibble when hungry, sleep when needed without hourly nurse checks, less potential exposure by being in a hosptial setting (no matter how clean it was…still a hosptial). I was more active by not being confined to a hospital room. Anyway, we felt the advantages huge.

Of course, the first week or so, I wasn’t energetic enough to walk to the clinic. No problem, Mayo allows you to take a wheel chair back to your lodging, if needed (if you are nearby of course).
If you choose lodging not attached to the Clinic, many hotels offer shuttle service several times per day to Mayo. There are places such as The Gift of Life Transplant House that, I believe, have daily labs drawn there sent over to the clinic. So there are many options for lodging. Being close though, prevents you from having to find daily parking spots, especially right now with all the construction in Rochester for the Clinic.

Wishing you well on the donor search…hopefully your DNA twin is found soon so you can get on with the rest of your new life! If you don’t mind sharing a little more about yourself, what led you to requiring a BMT?

Thank you VERY MUCH! You are extremely informative!
Are the hotel rates expensive to stay for that long period of time?

@upnorth94 When you look for long term lodging for the stem cell transplant assume you will be staying there for about 4 months, give or take a little. To help reduce costs of a long term stay, consider asking for a lease month to month. Most places are flexible as to allowing you to get out of the lease early. The lease will help you avoid county room tax like you’d have with renting a room day to day.
Of course, hotels closer to the clinic are pricier, but there are also other options available with condo rentals, AirBnB, etc.

There are some insurance companies which will pay a stipend towards lodging. It’s been a while but if I remember, my insurance would have paid $10,000 towards lodging if I’d have remained in my own state. But I insisted on Mayo, so we footed the bill ourselves. At tax time that ended up being on the list of deductions.

Below is a link to a discussion on Long term lodging options.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/long-term-lodging-options/
Another current discussion that may be helpful for you is this one that I started a few years ago:
My BMT/SCT story, will you share yours? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/my-bone-marrow-transplant-bmt-story-will-you-share-yours/

Once you have a match, you’ll get much more information from your BMT team and doctor. You’ll be able to meet with a transplant social worker who can help you sort through things. Also check with your insurance carrier. If you’re on the donor search already, I’m assuming the transplant has been approved already. I was assigned a case manager with my insurance company who was wonderful in helping to make sure things went smoothly.

I’m here for you anytime you have questions. We have a growing number of members who have also gone through this transplant process and we’re all here to offer support or answer questions.
What is your timeline for the transplant?

@loribmt
WOW! You are incredible!
We have been assigned a social worker, but was not very helpful at this time. However, that being said we don’t have a timeline yet. Right now, I have a 7-8 & 6-7. They are looking for a better match.
Your hotel sounds incredible.Do you mind sharing where you stayed? Did they make a special rate for monthly/ Long term stays for you?
Thanks again💕

@upnorth94, Hah, well, I don’t know that I’m incredible…I’ve been called a lot of things but never that. 😂. But I do have a fair amount of knowledge about the BMT process which I am happy to share with others.

Having gone through AML treatments, along with a bone marrow transplant, at the time I had never met anyone who had gone through either. About 1.5 months after my transplant I met two people who had been on my same journey…but they were 2 years and 5 years post transplant. Meeting them was the first time I felt a glimmer of hope that there would be normalcy in my life again. Being able to speak with someone who has walked the walk can make all the difference in the world.

So consider me a lifeline for you, along with my fellow BMT posse members here. We have your back. We didn’t all have ours transplants at Mayo so some of the stories aren’t quite the same, with some small variances in protocal. But the main premise and the recovery stories will be the same. So whatever we can do to help, let us know.

As far as hotels, we stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn on Center Street in Rochester. It’s two blocks from the hotel. That was over 6 years ago, but we still stay there when we return for follow-up appointments. The rates have increased quite a bit since then as you can imagine. They’ve also upgraded all the rooms recently. But for a long term stay it was ideal for us. Made it into our home away from home. The rate was reduced a bit because long term they didn’t have to turnover the room so often, and we didn’t need maid service daily. As mentioned before, we leased the suite month to month, avoiding the county room tax. This was from the suggestion of the hotel manager.

You have a lot to digest as this next chapter in your life unfolds. I know it can feel overwhelming just trying to imagine the logistics. But little by little it all comes together. Do you live far from Rochester?

@loribmt
Thank you Lori!
We are MN residents. So not too far.

Kind regards