Hello all I am new to the forum.

All the information you get is quite daunting. I did mine September last year I was prepared for the absolute worst and that was good because it was nowhere near as bad as I imagined. Everyone finds their own way through it  

Hi Rolli   and a warm welcome to this corner of the Community although I am sorry to see you joining us and hear about your journey to date.

I am Mike and I help out around our various Blood Cancer groups. I don’t have Myeloma but I have been treat for 2 rare types of T-Cell Lymphoma for over 25 years…… first diagnosis at 44 now 70.

i had 2 Allograft (donor) Stem Cell Transplants (SCT) (June 2014 then Oct 2015)

The initial 'Talk' with a SCT team where they unpack what they are going to do to me and carefully detail ALL the possible side effects can be very scary……. especially if you were having an Allograft SCT where some of the complications could turn out to be fatal…… It is scary.

But I found it to be do-able…… yes you need to allow a number of months post treatment for recovery but as the weeks and months go by your body recovers…… I am over 10 years out from my second Allo SCT and I am living a great life. 

Hi Rolli   kevin here,  AKA   Vespa,   i am male 68 and two  years post stem cell transplant,    leading a good life     after stem cell harvest,    which can take  2-3 days,  enough for  2 stem cell  transplants,      that is usually after 4 cycles of treatment,    the plasma  is frozen for you,   and  then about  4-6 weeks later i had my  transplant,    24 hours before is the Chemo   treatment,  to kill remaining   MM  cells  and of course all the good things in your body,    i had a picc line put in for ease of  dosing    the drugs,   on the day of the transplant   its    easy,  no pain,     just    your plasma  going back  in you,    i got transferred back to my   treatment  hospital in Worcester for high care  recovery,   which was  10 days,   its  tough,  no sugar coating,  but   through  advice,  i forced myself to  shower every day,   even with the   line attached,   i  walked 10 circuits of my  room,   and  slowly recovered,   the fatigue is tough,  but then you go home,  and recover a lot more,      mine and i guess a lot of others will tell you,  your appetite is shot,  i struggled with most foods,   and had  protein  shakes,      rice krispies in milk,      my wife brought me company and clean clothes and       milk shakes,   fruit   juices,  ice cream  was  great to eat    and any  food is considered good for you.      it took me about  4 months at home to  get some  energy back,  i would   go back to bed most days for  few hours,   dont fight your body  and   hope you have good support,        we all wish you well on this journey,  the  treatments and outcome for us,  is   way better than it used to be,  and i live a good life   kevin 

Thank you all for your kind responses. I know that every recovery is different, and I should not let my anxiety run rampant. I went into this treatment with a positive attitude. Now I have to continue that approach, knowing that God would not give me more than I can handle, and when times get tough he will be there with me.

Hello Rolli, (and looking at your original mail you may well be in hospital for the Stem Cell Transplant right now. 

I can only give you my own experience of my SCT, in December 2024. To borrow the line from the ad, it 'did what it said on the tin'. The initial heavy chemo (Melphalan I had) had a quick and heavy effect, shutting down my appetite and making me very tired. Over the next couple of weeks my hair fell out and I had gut problems, but after I got home I could feel improvement every week (measured by how far I could walk before feeling tired). By about 50 days after treatment I was feeling pretty normal. By 70 days everything was back as it had been before. I lost about a stone and half during treatment, but that has not been a bad thing and I have got all my previous energy and fitness level back. And, honestly, you can sort of forget about the bad effects quite soon afterwards. When I look at pictures from that time I think "Who is the old bald man with the pale face?" and then realise it's me. Time takes all the bad effects away, and then you have a new blood system.

Thanks Padjo59,

I have just finished my fourth cycle of treatments and now will not have any treatments for a month. During this time, I will take several tests and a bone marrow biopsy in preparation for chemo and the SCT, which are scheduled for 4/21-23/2026.Thanks for sharing about your recovery. That gives me hope that I may not have a long dreary recovery. Thanks again.