Afternoon all hope everyone is doing well,I wanted to up date you all on my process and ask for advice.
As you may know I had a stem cell transplant last year, I was in hospital for a total of 6 weeks, in 3 different hospitals it all went well and I'm now on the road to recovery, I've been doing well with everything, eating very healthy and doing daily exercises, which is mostly walking but,I'm still very tired and I'm fighting with my mind daily about getting back to normal and going back to work.
My question is when should I think about going back to work and,when will I be back to normal?
Also I'm getting pressure from family members to go back to work,I'm listening to my body and it's telling me not yet, as I only got out of hospital in October.
I look forward to your advice and thank you in advance.
Cornishman
Hi again and good to hear from you and that you are doing well.
Your question is difficult to answer as this is such an individual thing but interesting that I was at our local Heamatology support group at our Maggie’s Centre this afternoon.
There were a few folks post SCT and others who had not been down the SCT road and the understanding of being able to move on post treatments was remarkably different between the two sets of folks.
The Maggie's support once was a Nurse in a SCT unit and she was saying that on the whole post SCT recovery took at least three times as long compared to those who had not been on the journey.
I think you have answered your own question as you are the only person who understands your body and what your body and mind will be able to do.
You may find this ongoing thread in our Stem Cell Transplant group to be helpful Life after a SCT - A Survivor's Guide where we have tried to collect or post treatment experiences.
I was retired from teaching before my treatment started but always thought about when post SCT, I would have been able to do the job and for me - it was a good two to three years....... this was mainly due to my reduced immune system and the fact that I have had many NHS DB&Bs with infections.
Do what you think you can do.
