Stem Cell Transplant

I have had a fair few questions about my stem cell transplant recently.  And rightly so.  A stem cell transplant can mean a number of things from deriving a small amount of stem cells from fat tissues purely for cosmetic purposes all the way up to a total bone marrow transplant.  Here are the details of what I will hopefully be going through.

The full name of my procedure is an autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.  Definitions are as follows:-

Autologous:- Derived or transferred from the same individuals body*

Hematopoietic:- The formation of blood or blood cells in the body*

Stem Cell:-  An unspecialised cell that gives rise to a specialised cell, such as a blood cell*

Transplant:- To transfer (tissue or organ) from one body or body part to another*

*Definitions from www.thefreedictionary.com

So, in short, the procedure is the donation of blood stem cell from myself to myself.  But it is a fraction more complicated than that.  The following diagram gives a brief explanation of the process:

The hard part comes in three sections.  There is the first round of chemotherapy that is used to stimulate the growth of stem cells so they can harvest as many they can.  Also have to have Neupogen injections for one week to assist in this endeavor.  Both the chemo and neupogen are not without their side effects, which is the fun part.

Second, is the intensive round of chemotherapy.  We all know someone who has had cancer and the difficulty that they have had.  Aside from me not having cancer it really is not much different.  The iidea of this round of chemo is to completely destroy all white blood cells, so when the stem cell are reintroduced they create a brand new immune system and there is nothing left to copy.  If I simply re-grew a copy of my old immune system I would still have the antibodies that were attacking my nervous system.

Third, after the second round of chemo I'll be completely neutropenic.  Meaning I will have no immune system and unable to fight off infection.  Even a common cold could be life threatening, so I have to be really careful for the next few months to make sure I don't catch anything.  Even though they have a timeline for when they think you should reach certain milestones, what really dictates when you reach those milestones is your white blood count as that is the best indication of the strength of your immune system.

Next time I will post my transplant schedule, so all going to plan, you will be able to know when I will be facing each stage.  Until then, stay well:)