STC

Hi again Loonylil and well done navigating across to this corner of the site and I hope that you can find lots of support and information....... just so folks know, your husband has Multiple Myeloma.

I could not be put into remission to have my Stem Cells Harvested so had to have 2 Allo (donor) SCTs with cells from my brother. He actually said the harvest was rather straightforward although with a long sit.

You can hit our community names to see our stories and also look at this useful thread Checklist for SCT Unit as it is a collection of helpful things to have in the SCT unit.

Do you know the name of the Conditioning treatment he is having?....... Conditioning treatment is the treatment that takes down his immune system before he gets his stem cells back.

This is my Simple Guide to an Auto (Autologous) Stem Cell Transplant.

For an Auto SCT the patient will have to be in a window of remission so that their Stem Cells can be harvested this often requires what is often called salvage treatment.... basically some chemo that can often be strong but is designed to achieve the goal.

The patient will most likely have a week of injections to make the bone marrow work overtime to produce lots of Stem Cells.

To harvest the Stem Cells a line is put into the arm. It's sort of like giving blood - the blood runs into a very clever machine that brrrrs the blood round and picks out what are called undifferentiated cells (these Stem Cells have not been given a job by the bone-marrow so this is before they turn into Red or White blood cells etc) and the blood returns through the line back into the blood-stream.

The machine can pick out millions of stem cells over a 4-5 hours process. The harvest is on the whole painless and once harvested the Stem Cells are frozen.

Leading up to the actual SCT the patient will have to have treatments to get to a stage where the SCT can proceed.

So 7ish days leading up to the SCT day he/she will have to go through what is called Conditioning, its a method of taking down the bodies Immune System completely.

This is normally done again using some very strong chemotherapy and for some like myself, Radiotherapy..... but I had an Allo SCT.

Once the Immune System is taken down they give the harvested Stem Cells back just like getting a blood transfusion through a Central Line.

The Stem Cells then go to the Jobcentre in the Bone Marrow and ask for a job. This is the point where they become differentiated cells like Red and White blood cells and the all ’New You’ starts to grow as the body starts to reboot the Immune System and over time the blood counts come back up.

It's all very cleaver, very science fiction but all very do-able.

Each SCT Unit will do their own thing but for an Auto SCT the conditioning can be done as an out-patient then when the patient is get close to get their cells back this is done in a dedicated SCT unit.

It's a very clean environment (Ward) in a hospital, the patient may even get their own on-suite room. The time in the unit will be different for everyone but expect at least a few weeks - but the medical team will keep the patient well informed.

Remember the patient does not have an immune system to fight bugs during this time so safety first, but SCT teams are very good at keeping everything under control until new immune system kicks back in. The patient will be an in-patient for some of the time but this all depends on how fast the ’New You’ starts to grow. The average is about 4-6 weeks in the unit but can be quicker.

Once the patient gets discharged they do need to be very careful during the weeks following the SCT as the new Immune System is still growing so care with coming in contact with infectious environments but their team will give lots of guidelines.

Expect weekly appointments for bloods etc as they will want to keep a close eye on the patient.

I would also say that the fatigue following a SCT is much higher than going through regular chemo but that could just be me, going off food and some mouth issues do come along but these SCT teams will help as they have seen it all before.

You will have lots of questions so you will find me and others able to help out with anything SCT related.

I always say that you can’t do anything to control the actual medical treatments but you can make a difference to how you get through your journey, but we can help you get through this.

Understanding stem cell transplants using your own cells (autologous) - PDF here.

Thanks for such an informative and helpful response. My husband has had his first high dose chemotherapy on Monday and they harvest, fingers crossed, next Thursday. The unit has been very good at explaining the procedure and have given me lots of literature. 
what I was hoping to find out was the situation at Kings London - I have asked but thought the perspective of someone who has been treated there recently would give me better insight.

your journey has been very eventful - I take my hat off to you being able to discuss it all in such a calm and gentle manner! 

very very best wishes and thank you again 

Every SCT journey is eventful

If you put King’s London into the search tool near the top and search in the Stem Cell Posts you will see a few posts - as always you can hit reply to any post and see if the members are still active on the site