Good morning, Peter. Just saw your post come up as an alert on my phone. My husband has recently had his stem cells collected and we are waiting for a transplant date. Firstly, I hope all goes well with your collection, but if it doesn’t, don’t panic. My husband’s first attempt at collection failed in that they were not able to get enough. We were, naturally, a bit alarmed at what this meant, but in the end he had to do the priming treatment again a fortnight later, and on the second attempt all went well.
As to the transplant itself, several times during the treatment we were asked if he wanted to do this as an outpatient. Each time I emphasised that I felt unable to do this because I have no ‘back-up’ – no family living nearby – so I would be completely responsible 24/7 and I didn’t think I could offer this. So far, the hospital have accepted that this is the case, and we are proceeding towards a hospital stay of 3 weeks for my husband.
I think your wife needs to be involved in the decision because it puts a lot of responsibility on her. Our hospital hands out a leaflet which says that in order to be eligible for the domiciliary transplant you must live no more than one hour’s drive from the hospital, there must be someone with you all the time who is available to drive you in to the hospital if a problem arises, and anyone who lives in the house with you must isolate for the duration.
Hope that this helps.
I have wondered how things went for Dave. Hope that he is now having a good period of remission and not having to think so much about Myeloma.
Best wishes,
Lili
