[italianburrito]

Originally Posted by Joe C

Good luck with your transplant and I can understand your emotions. I'm about 150+ days post transplant. I was diagnosed with AML in July 2014 after feeling sick for about 2 weeks at age 39. My WBC was 196! After 2 months in the hospital with 14 days (2 inductions) of chemo and near 0 counts I went home to await transplant news. They could not find a donor for me, best they could find was 9/10 so I had a cord blood/stem-cell transplant, even that was mismatched at 4/6.

I had a total of 4 rounds of chemo before my transplant. They used to send me home with 0 counts regularly after my chemo. Then just pretransplant 3 more days of chemo followed by 5 days of high intensity radiation. My counts all went back to about 0 for about 30 days, with a neutropenic fever between 100-103 each day. They did every test in the book but could not find the source of the fever.

Surprising enough I did not feel that bad and never took pain pills other than tylenol. About a week post-transplant I was throwing up due to the high radiation and chemo but it went away. Little to no GVHD, some skin rash and upset stomach at times but that was it. Plenty tired though. Went home after 35 days and stayed in a nearby hotel for 3 months. The transplant itself was easy, just sit back and in a few hours it's done.

I have been re-admitted to the hospital 4 times with fevers but went home each time 5 days or less. Cord blood transplants take a lot longer to get better and are more prone to infection but I'm feeling pretty good considering everything.

Before the transplant I was walking 4-6 miles per day up the hills of Seattle. In between chemos I was feeling pretty good. I gotta say I hated every second of being in the hospital, even though everyone was very nice and I knew it was the best place for me to be. One thing to remember is even when you feel bad, you are going to feel good again. While admitted, keep up your walks, eat as much as you can, watch tv, bring a laptop or something, stay connected to family and friends, and you can make the best of a bad situation. I'm not sure what your schedule is or what kind of transplant you are getting, but having been in the hospital most of the last year I can tell you it gets better. Good luck and stay strong.

Joe, You are one of the few people on his forum that has had a cord blood transplant. My dad is 64 and will be having a cord blood mini-transplant sometime in sept./Oct. if everything is going right. Did you have the full myleoablative regimen?