Melphalan

Hi.  Yes it’s the go to. Chemo before stem cell transplant.    Ty hey made me drink a lot of iced water whilst being fed.  I. V.   I went to the loo about 5 times in 30 minutes.   You feel nothing at all.   Then next day I had transplant.      The recovery is the tough bit.   I had 10 days in high care.    As I understand it kills everything in your body.   Bad and good.   Then they build you up again !     After recovering I had all my previous injections from child hood back again.    My. Dr s surgery was brilliant working from the list given to them by the hospital.    Get ready for the tough part of your recovery journey!       It’s worth it.  I am 2.5 years post SCT. and living a good life !   Kevin

Hi Easington  I had Melphalan as part of my conditioning for my second Allogenic Stem Cell Transplant in Oct 2014 for my two types of rare T-Cell NHL.

Melphalan is actually a type of chemotherapy that is derived from Nitrogen mustards (Mustard Gas!!!)

During the IV I did the ice pole sucking thing 30 mins before, throughout the 30 - 40 mins IV and 30 mins after to stop my mouth turning into one big ulcer…… and I actually did not have a mouth problem.

But this may also down to the two pack oral mouth rinse called Caphosol that my SCT Unit uses.

So from day - 11 for my first Allo SCT and day - 7 for my second Allo SCT and all the way through until I got out of the unit I use a two pack oral mouth rinse about 8 times a day……. I set alarms on my phone to remind me throughout the day ti do the mouth wash but also set a 3 min timer for each rinse to ensure I was doing it long enough.

My head consultant said that the Caphosol was rather expensive but if I used it correctly it would save me a lot of mouth pain and having to be on other drugs to over come any bad mucositis……. But I had no problems……. but what ever mouth care products you are given you must use them religiously.

Absolutely I was given two mouthwashes  each to be used four times a day. I hated them. You had to gargle them for 90 seconds each but the result was I never got any mouth problems at all. 

Yes Jo100  we are basically passengers on the SCT journey…… but are given a few important things to do and it’s important we play our part in getting out the other end with as little issues as possible.

Many thanks to everyone who replied to my query about Melphalan. It’s good to get as much info as possible as I know everyone reacts differently & it’s quite scary going into the unknown