[valgrebezsParticipant]

Mad question for you. from Val, I have posted already this morning. When husband was diagnosed in Oct 2014 we had a holiday booked for Christmas in Antigua and were finalising a house purchase in France.
I asked the Consultant if we could still go away, he laughed and said No! Shame, as I work for British Airways! Also we had to complete on our house in France due to French Law, thank goodness we have friends there who can act as Project Managers, even if we have to sell it, but we had no choice.
Main question, after Chemo is done finally, what’s next before a transplant and if all goes well, how long before we can travel. Thanks Val

[keithmtParticipant]

Hi Val,

I had my SCT last April and was fit enough to travel by June. That was a trip to Austria and I don’t think my consultant would have been as happy about it if I was headed for Africa or somewhere with health risks and poor medical support.

I’ve just done a detailed reply to Amanda ( see General / Stem Cell Transplant) on my transplant process so have a read there.

All the best

Keith

• This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by  keithmt.

[janwParticipant]

Hi Val

It’s such a hard question to answer, because it all depends on how your husband reacts to his ongoing chemotherapy, whether he needs to change drugs, whether he will be going through a stem cell transplant and whether he has any infections/colds which will all affect his recovery period. It really does vary tremendously from patient to patient. Your consultant is the best person to ask about going to France because he/she will have your husband’s latest blood and myeloma results, together with a proposed action plan for his treatment.

I know that I wasn’t fit enough to consider travelling abroad for a good two years after my stem cell transplant. However, my consultant suggested the average recovery time after a SCT is around three months. But I did struggle with the side effects of the drugs with constant nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath, bone pain, muscle weakness, constipation, water infections, etc. Therefore, I was always going to take longer to recover than those patients who sail through their treatment without any problems.

Four years after transplant and my immunity levels are still quite low, therefore I’m not too keen on being stuck on a plane for hours with various bugs being recycled especially during the winter months or school holidays. A common cold will push up my light chains by 200 – 300 and it takes me a good six weeks to recover from a virus, which immediately goes onto my chest.

I hope you both manage to sort out your property in France.

Kind regards
Jan

d

• This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by  janw.

[VickiParticipant]

Hi Val

We were told that we couldn’t travel abroad for 6 months after the transplant. Because Colin had been in and out of hospital with infections we were glad not too! Always best to asks eh consultant, even after a year we asked the consultant about going to mauritius they were ok with us going but we had to take antibiotics with us just in case!

Vicki and Colin x

[dickbParticipant]

For me, the question wasn’t so much about how soon I could travel but about how quickly my T4 cells recovered post SCT. Apparently. I’m not sure how it works but the T4 cells I believe are the ones that fight a specific type of infection. Before they were happy for me to do anything I had to have a minimum of 200 T4 cells per whatever measurement of blood. So perhaps you need to ask what the relevence of the T cell count is to your husband’s particular case.

By the way, we did go to Paris for a few days during a break between Chemo courses. As far as I was concerned it wasn’t such a great risk because we live in Germany and it’s only 3 hours by train, we stayed with family and I felt well enough, had all the antibiotics and anti viral drugs with me. I also didn’t tell my consultant but I must stress that that decision is a personal one and only your husband can make it

[CarolParticipant]

Hello Val – We have a second home in Brittany which my husband Allan and I enjoy spending as many weeks as we can there. Allan was diagnosed during 2011 and even when he was going through his initial chemo treatment, his Consultant was happy for him to go providing our local Doctor in France had alls his meds on his computer should necessity arise although our Consultant lets us take sufficient supplies o our trips. Unfortunately because of his age he cannot have a stem cell transplant. It is possible although complicated to arrange, for treatment to take place in France if you wanted to spend a longer time there. I know this because I asked! Hope this helps and enjoy la belle France.

[MrsLParticipant]

Hi Val,

We also have a holiday home in France and although I was told under no circumstances could I ski I could travel to France during my initial treatment of RCD as I only needed to visit hospital every 4 weeks and took tablets the other three weeks. So we managed a few trips during that six months but we went in the car rather than fly, partly because of the increased risk of thrombosis and partly for flexibility in getting home quickly if necessary. After my SCT I was told I could travel to Europe at my 100 day check up and we had a 3 week trip 4 months after my SCT.

Unfortunately I have now relapsed and am on a course of VCD which ties me to hospital two weeks out of three, and occasionally on the third as well at the moment. But this week the consultant told me I can fly so we hope to make a short trip soon when I have a week off from hospital trips.

Linda

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