[trenchmanParticipant]

Hi Everyone,
Just joined the forum after deliberating for a long time.
Diagnosed with High Risk Deletion Myeloma in October 2019 after series of spinal fractures and other stuff.
Straight on to chemo and then autologous transplant in May/June.
All entirely successful and I am cancer free and recovering pretty well.
Does everyone (anyone?) else feel so deflated, lost, clueless and energy-free afterwards.
I should be celebrating shouldn’t I?

[rosaryParticipant]

Yes you should ( be celebrating ) ! And yes stemcell takes it out of you so not surprising you’re having the odd bad day when you feel a bit deflated ….

Knowledge is power and great for motivation , I’ve been using healthtree.org and thoroughly recommend it – specialist site for myeloma patients. It’s American and takes some work to load all your data but full of great info especially on Healthree University.

[paulpixParticipant]

Hi Trenchman

I had my SCT back in 2017 and I remember feeling exactly the same, I believe it is entirely normal, first of all on a physical level the drugs really take everything out of you and it can take anything up to 2 years before you start feeling “normal” again, even now I am at the point on a really tired day of thinking “is this still the SCT or am I just really tired today” so it goes on for ages.

On the mental side, the fight against the cancer takes all of your energy and focus, once you have finished with the SCT you no longer have this focus and that can leave you feeling lost and clueless. It does get better it just takes some time, see if you can find something else that you enjoy that you can focus on.

Best of luck to you

Paul

[mulberryParticipant]

Hi Trenchman
Being shielded in a pandemic really doesn’t help us to think positive. Are you on only maintenance medication? This can be a bit of a double edged sword. Although it prolongs inactive disease, and overall survival, some people have low mood and loss of energy when taking it. Also,you are really in the very early days post SCT and need to give yourself more time to recover.
I’m 17 months post SCT & on maintenance. Usually I feel pretty upbeat now, but if I physically or stresswise overdo things I then pay a price with lower mood.

[DebsParticipant]

Hi there. I had my transplant back in2011 and like you afterwards felt really down despite everything being good.
I think it’s the hard thing with myeloma. We don’t know what the future holds and also sometimes it is just a huge anticlimax post transplant.
I ended up having a bit of counselling to help me get my head into the right place. I also went back to work and got back to fundraising for Myeloma UK – something that has helped me as it allows me to acknowledge the myeloma in a more positive way when I’m healthy.
Good luck.

[trenchmanParticipant]

Thanks for the advice. I’ve checked Health tree out and I’m in the process of signing on.

[trenchmanParticipant]

Thanks for this – you clearly understand and you’ve made me feel much better about everything!

[trenchmanParticipant]

Thanks for this. Along with the other respondents you’ve made me feel much better about myself.

[trenchmanParticipant]

Big thanks to all who responded to my plea! Together you’ve all made me feel much better and it’s great to know it’s not just me! Can’t thank you all enough.
Trenchman
(Rob T)

[Author]

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