Hi. I had my stem cell transplant in May. The harvesting took place 2 weeks before. It’s the transplant, not the harvesting,
that affects the immune system because the high dose chemo (Melphalan) basically kills off a lot of the good cells in your bone marrow as well as killing the cancer cells. Some of my cell counts went down to zero. The harvesting doesn’t affect your immune system and didn’t make me feel ill in any way. The only issue about taking a holiday during the gap is whether you know how long the gap will be. I didn’t get a transplant date until the harvesting was done and they wanted me to go in for the transplant the following week. I asked for an extra week so I could get all my arrangements in place. Best wishes with the process.
