[MrseParticipant]

Hi all 🙂

My father in law was diagnosed with Myeloma last year and has been undergoing Chemo and in the last week has been in to hospital to have his stem cells taken out ready for SCT. Can anyone who have experience of SCT tell me roughly how long from taking the stem cells will it be to the SCT? Hospital have been a bit vague with us about timing and we wanted some clarification.

Also do people have tips we can pass on to Dad of things to help him cope with SCT?

Thanks all for sharing your stories certainly helps us as family know what Dad is going through and some people out there are so inspiring!

Nikki

[VickiParticipant]

Hi nicki

I think it varies. Colin stopped treatment mid July, then had two failed harvest, so between July and the 3rd attempt it was about 2 months. We finally got the cells in September and then he was in end of October 2012. Don't get too worried about time spans in between, no one seemed worried but I was however as non one else seemed to I tried to calm down!

With regard to tips I'd read the sct thread experiences, whilst everyone is different, it gives an idea. Best of luck 🙂

Vicki and Colin x

[tishwishParticipant]

Hello Nikki

My husband had his stems collected on 26th October 2011 and he was given them back on 1st December 2011. Peter came out of hospital on 20th Dec.

Good luck
Love Trish xx

[LouiseAParticipant]

Hi Nikki,

My dad had his stem cells collected on 12 February, returned on 1st March and he was out on the 15th March. Dad was told it takes three weeks to prepare the stem cells but his were quicker because he was the only one having his collected that day and everything was ready.

With regards to the SCT, it is tough but the way dad got through it was to stay positive and eat something even if he didn't feel like eating (dad ate custard/jelly and bananas). For dad, the worse thing was the constant sick feeling and two or three days of bad diarrhea. Doctors can give you medicine to take the edge off this but it's still lurking in the background. He would also say to strictly follow the mouth wash regime to help avoid problems with a sore mouth.

One thing that we were lucky enough to be able to do was Facetime (similar to skype but using IPads) him in hospital. This meant that he could speak and see Mum and family members (especially grandchildren) whenever he wanted and we were able to connect with him to show our support but were respectful when he didn't feel up to talking.

Obviously dad's out now (1 week tomorrow) but has still got a long way to go. He finds a shower exhausting but he'll get there as long as he is patient and doesn't over do it.

I wish your dad the very best of luck in his SCT.

Kind regards,

Louise

[jmsmythParticipant]

Hi Nikki

My husband had cells harvested on 11 December and had had the transplant on 5 March. It depends on the hospital, I think. We are in Belfast and Belfast City Hospital only has 6 sterile units to service the whole on Northern Ireland and we were told that leukaemia and lymphoma patients get priority. Frank is on day 16. He has had terrible diarrhoea and sickness and sleeps quite a bit. If you do a search under the topic Treatment for SCT you will find a lot of useful information. Before Frank was admitted I read and re read posts and found them very helpful. It is good to know what you can expect. My best wishes to ou dad
Love jean x

[MrseParticipant]

Thank you all for your comments! Dad went in on Tuesday, hes had his chemo Wed and Stem cells back in on Thursday. Unfortunately a lot of family have had colds so we havent seen him as much as we would want to 🙁 But the joys of skype we have still spoke everyday and so far so good 🙂

[PerkymiteParticipant]

Hi Nikki, I wish your Dad the best of luck on his transplant. Make sure he takes anti infection procedures very very seriously when he comes out of hospital. Be ruthless about it for at least 3 months.

Kindest regards – vasbyte

David

[MrseParticipant]

Thank you David 🙂 We have told him this and to be honest he agrees and has been very quick on the avoiding infection topic. When we spoke to him today he said he was feeling quite woozy and tired and just under the weather – is this a common thing for about this stage in SCT? (Stem cells went in Thursday). Thanks so much for the support x

[tomParticipant]

Hi Nikki

Sorry Nikki I seem to have missed this post 🙁 and am sorry for the late reply.

Good Luck to your dad in his road to remission, I assume you looked through other post on here re do's and dont's through SCT for advice?

love Tom Onwards and upwards xx

[BabsParticipant]

Hi Nikki,
In answer to your question re how your dad is now feeling during his SCT, this is quite normal for all of us who have undergone this procedure. The hospital team will monitor his temperature for early signs of infection and will act upon any immeadiately, the chemo given prior to cells being put back in is so strong it wipes the patient out, mostly the spouses and family of the transplant patients visit to find they spend long times watching over the sleeping patient, he will also have no energy.
He will be having daily blood tests too and may need extra
blood,platelets, fluids etc, all of this is also quite usual.
I had my SCT on Kings which is only half an hour from my eldest daughters home, she came to see me once then caught a cold so was not able to visit me again, even on my birthday which was 3 days after my transplant.
Ask away and if we can we will help you and your family through this, and of course you have the nurses who you can ring on here too.
Babs

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