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.