POST SCT - allergies

Hi Mike, SCT can play with the bodies metabolism….. for good and bad.

The fact that we have to get re-vaccinations done tells us that the bone marrows immunity has been wiped out and has to start from scratch just like a baby.

I am bad for chest infections and head colds resulting in blocked noses and headaches… I had no problem over winter 2020/2021 but they are all back this past winter…… my SCN was saying that this has happened a lot to many folks who are post SCT.

I have also talked with folks who have actually developed new allergies, then folks like me who has actually been told that I may be no longer allergic to Penicillin but have not been brave to try it.

The joys of the post SCT left overs.

Whatcanyoudo Hi Mike

After my SCT I was no longer allergic to penicillin and for the last few years have suffered with hay fever which I didn't suffer with previously.

I have last week started on the on a day hay fever anti histamines for the next few months which seem to the hay fever manageable but if I forget to take one I soon remember as the symptoms start quickly keep it at bay.

Hi Paul,

Thanks and weird that you lost one allergy but gained a new one! I am no doctor but wonder if the immune systems has to reboot and forgets where it was at!

I have started a daily anti-histamine and nasal spray when needed and seems to be helping but told can take a few weeks to fully kick in.

Hope you are keeping well.

Mike

Hi Mike

I had an allogenic transplant (from someone unrelated) and it was described to me as taking out a computers hard drive and putting a new one in. So any previous allergies or immunities I had built up were gone. For example I had chicken pox and Mumps as a child but I now no longer have any immunity for those. I had all my childhood vaccinations again as well. Not sure if it is the for an auto SCT

Hi Paul,

You hear these stories about people developing a taste for marmite after an allo SCT and then finding out the donor loved marmite! I am not sure of the mechanics but was told you do have to have all the childhood jabs again with an auto.  Funnily enough I was surprised to get a call from A UCH nurse this week to remind me - 20 months after the SCT.  Thankfully, daily anti-histamine seems to be now helping lots!

Mike

Hi Mike, whilst in having my two Allo SCTs I was told some bizarre but amazing stories about peoples bone marrow re-boot.

As Paul has said it is like putting in a new hard drive. In an Auto your body has the capabilities to recognise your DNA stored in your Stem Cells but like a new hard drive from the same manufacturer it will also recognise some basic information……. but you then have to load the operating systems and programs (vaccines) and due to the amazing abilities of our body this can be done….. but as with any new system there may be errors resulting in things like new allergies just as a baby will develop stuff early on.

In an Allo the body sees the donor cells as an alien in the body and does it’s best to kill these cells off so this is why those who have an Allo have medication that subdues our ‘old self’ allowing the ‘new immune’ system to get a foot hold then at about 100 days post this drug is reduced and the real battle for supremacy begins…… some folks get on ok but some develop GvHD (Graft versus Host Disease) and for some this can be very bad new and for some there may be no way back resulting in death.   

I was told the story of a girl who had an Allo and a after her counts started to rise she was continually smelling a burning smell, the staff assured her that there was nothing burning…. one member who was in night shift was reading through her notes and noticed her donor was a German Fire Fighter!!!!!!

I had animal and bird allergies before going into my Allo’s - I no longer have them as my brother who was my donor did not have them to the point he kept racing pigeons most of his life….. it’s an amazing process.