Hi, I am new to the group, my husband has been fighting for 5+ years, originally diagnosed with melanoma has since been diagnosed with
myeloma after several rounds of chemo he has last week been to harvest his stem cells in preparation. My first question is he has come back really really tired, is this normal also they have told us they have not got enough cells, they like to take 8million but have only got 6 ….. it was a Friday afternoon and been told thehealth team will let you know …. Has anybody else had this? What was the outcome.
the hospital and staff have been great, but all this uncertainty is so tiring .
Tina x
Hi TArchand a warm welcome to this corner of the Community although I am sorry to see you joining us and hear about the your husbands diagnosis.
I am Mike and I help out around our various Blood Cancer groups. I don’t have Myeloma but I was diagnosed way back in 1999 with a rare, incurable but treatable type of Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (Stage 4) so although my Blood Cancer ‘type’ is different I do appreciate the challenges of this journey rather well and more so as I have had 2 Allo (donor) Stem Cell Transplants (SCT)
I could not be put into remission for my cells to be harvested so had to have a donor SCT so my brother was a match so he went through the harvest…… he is a very healthy person with no health issues and he was very tired after the two day harvest.
As for the number of stem cells…… my brother was the same, they had target but did not reach it but it made no difference in the end as there was plenty.
If his team think there is not enough they will just aim to harvest some more.
Stem Cell Transplant is a mystery at times but talking with others who have been through it can help so can I recommend you join and introduce yourself on our dedicated Stem cell transplant support group as you will meet both people who have been through SCT and family who supported folks through their SCTs.
I will keep my open for you in the SCT group.
