Stem Cell Transplant

May 2019:

An autologous stem cell transplant is basically a way of using a much bigger dose of chemotherapy than it would be possible to give otherwise. Chemotherapy does kill cancer cells; the tricky bit is not doing the same to the patient. By removing stem cells from the patient first and freezing them before giving the chemo, then returning the stem cells afterwards to enable recovery, that allows much stronger chemotherapy to be used. Very clever, but rather scary. Then after two to three weeks in an isolation room to allow your immune system to rebuild, it’s back home for a couple of months or so of recovery. I had to rest halfway up the stairs when I first got home. I also needed a couple of bags of red blood cells, thank you to whoever donated those.

Isolation is quite an experience. It surprised me after a while how cleaning your teeth a couple of times and having a shower can seem like a busy day. Thank goodness for smartphones. It's pretty tough, mentally as well as physically and there were a couple of really bad days when I was beginning to wonder whether all this trying to stay alive business was worth it. But it definitely was in the end of course and it got me another three years’ remission.

I asked the Consultant what would happen if my frozen stem cells got lost; would it be possible to recover without them? He said he’d never been asked that before. He thought for quite a while and then said, not very convincingly, ‘possibly’. I took that as a no. I was pretty relieved therefore when the R2D2 lookalike was wheeled into my room with my stem cells onboard. I took an R2D2 photo, that really is a selfie.

Huge thanks to all the incredible haematology team at the Bexley Wing, St James Hospital, Leeds. Truly wonderful facility and fantastic staff. I can’t thank them enough.

The photo shows the very clever machine that extracts stem cells from your blood. It takes about six or seven hours with your blood leaving one arm, going through the machine and back into the other arm. The machine has a centrifuge which spins the blood and separates the stem cells which are then diverted into a bag to be frozen. Seven hours not moving your arms is quite a challenge, fortunately I didn't need to try the toilet device that can be requested.