Staying with my recent trend of focusing on more of the scientific and medical aspects of my Multiple Myeloma (MM) journey - particularly for folks just coming onto the "path" - here is another little drash about Stem Cell Transplants (SCT) in general, and mine in particular (prepare yourself of a flurry of abbreviations).
A successful SCT gives someone with Multiple Myeloma new, healthy bone marrow by replacing unhealthy cells in the bone marrow harmed by cancerous myeloma cells. Since its introduction in the 1980s, high-dose chemotherapy (HDT) followed by an Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation (ASCT) is considered part of the standard of care for eligible patients with newly diagnosed MM. ASCT is safe with a low rate of mortality (1%), and the majority of patients can be managed at home following the procedure. Just to clear the air, an ASCT (which is what I had) used my own stem cells for the procedure - none that were taken from a donor or any other source.
Fitting into the category of an eligible patient with newly diagnosed MM, December 29, 2017 was the date that I had my ASCT. It was preceded by three rounds of chemo (over a roughly 3-month period), and then a final HDT round to give those nasty cancer cells one last blast. Granted, that is a very over-simplified explanation of what happened to me medically, but it actually does describe in layman's terms what I went through then to get to where I am today.
The SCT infusion process took a few hours (done right in my hospital room); I was in limited isolation for about two weeks (immediate family wearing masks were allowed to visit); and then I stayed home for another 3 months (WFH and laying low while my immune system "rebuilt" itself). Since then, I've been on a monthly maintenance regimen (adjusted periodically as my strength increases and myeloma numbers/presence decreases) getting better and better, to the point of my current controlled "remission" status.
I consider that date to be a bit of a "rebirth day" for me in the sense that my immune system was basically wiped out and then regrown using the new cancer-free stem cells. To give you an idea of the comprehensive nature of the rebirth/regrowth, starting 12 months after my ASCT had truly settled in, I had to have all of my "baby shots" all over again (ie: MMR, DPT, Polio, Hep A/B, Tetanus, Chickenpox, etc.). And as an interesting aside, after the SCT, my hair grew back with a higher percentage of red vs white than before my SCT, but that's another story. Bottom-line: 12-29-17 ASCT HrBD 2 me!
