One year down the line after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma I'm finally in remission, took quite a lot of chemo but I got there and I'm feeling great.
The final hurdle now is an allo stem cell transplant to give me the best chances of staying cancer free.
After much thought I've decided I want to share this part of my story and so here I am trying to write a blog!
These are my main reasons:
- when trying to research into blogs of people that have gone through an allo stem cell transplant, there wasn't much to be found, so i hope that people in the future will find some insight into what to expect if they have to go through this process
-my phone is usually like a hotline when I'm in hospital (very grateful so many people care) so now my friends and family can follow my journey all in one place
- lastly I just want to raise some awareness of stem cell transplants and will show you that even though it might be tough, it will be worth it. If you know anyone going through this and ever wants to ask questions or in need of some support I'm more than happy to chat!
So briefly this is what's going to happen in the next few weeks - today I'm starting a regime of high intensity chemo, I will get chemo every day for a week. The aim is to completely destroy any remaining cancer cells and to wipe out my bone marrow (the machine that makes your immune system) On day 7 my brother, who was the only donor match in my family will be taken in and hooked up to a machine to filter out his stem cells. That evening they are given to me via a line in my neck and pumped straight into my body, by this time I should be pretty sick.
And then.......we wait, in hope that a week or two later his stem cells like me and start to make me a new immune system, and when it does and I start to feel better I get to go home and rest for a few months while my immune system slowly develops to a normal level.
So that's it, although that's not really it, I'll probably experience a lot of symptoms and setbacks along the way, or maybe I'll be lucky and it won't be too bad, but sure that's what this blog is for.....welcome to my stem cell story!
FormerMember
Wishing u all the best over the next few months Stacey- no stronger woman I know And I'm sure ur blog will encourage, support and benefit many for years to come.
Take care, lots of love and strength to u, ur bro, darragh and all the fam xxx
