Hi
I was diagnosed with a Solitary Plasmacytoma in 2024 after falling over and damaging my shoulder. A precautionary ultrasound to rule out tendon damager found a mass in my shoulder area.
At the beginning of 2025 I went through a course of radio therapy involving daily 80 mile round trips to the nearest radiotherapy suite.
The radiotherapy did not work and after more tests I started four cycles of chemotherapy (DVDT: Daratumumab, Bortezomib, Thalidomide and Dexamethasone) with a plan to to be followed by High-dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplant and then two more cycles of chemo.
I finished the first four cycles of chemo in early February (after some hiccups along the way with upset stomachs, probably caused by the Bortezomib, and delays du=e to Christmas and New year holidays falling on treatment days)
I had a Hickman line inserted shortly after the cycles completed and then (a week or so later) travelled to Nottingham for stem cell extraction.
Prior to extraction I had four sets of injections (I gave them to my self after the first dose administered by the community nurse) of Filgrastim to boost my stem cell count.
On the first morning in Nottingham a blood test showed the stem cell count as 0.79 (a minimum count of 10 is needed for the machine to be able to extract stem cells from the blood stream). I was sent back to the on site hotel to give myself 2 more Filgrastim injections later in the day.
On the second day the count was 1.8 two more Filgrastim injections later that day.
On the third day the count was 3.9. As a result I was given a different injection that evening along with the 2 Filgrastim injections.
On the fourth day the connected me to the extraction machine and waited for blood test results. 3.2!! so the stem cell count had actually gone down!
After that a consultant came to see me to discuss next steps and I was allowed to go home.
So I have some questions:
1. How often does stem cell extraction fail in this way?
2. Could this have been affected by my type 2 Diabetes (controlled with Metformin, by messed by by the Dexamethasone in my chemo)
3. Could the Zolendronic infusions I’ve been having have affected the extraction.
Thanks
Kev
