bmt patient report questions

What questions should I ask about bone marrow transplant?

Your stem cell transplant consultation: Questions to askWhat type of stem cell transplant are you recommending for me? ... How will you find a donor for me? ... Will I need other types of treatment? ... What are the risks associated with a stem cell transplant? ... What is graft-versus-host disease?More items...•

What should I monitor after bone marrow transplant?

In the days and weeks after your bone marrow transplant, you'll have blood tests and other tests to monitor your condition. You may need medicine to manage complications, such as nausea and diarrhea.

What disqualifies you from being a bone marrow recipient?

Autoimmune diseases Most diseases which may be defined as autoimmune disorders, such as multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, will prevent you from donating marrow or blood-forming cells.

What is the average life expectancy after bone marrow transplant?

Some 62% of BMT patients survived at least 365 days, and of those surviving 365 days, 89% survived at least another 365 days. Of the patients who survived 6 years post-BMT, 98.5% survived at least another year.

What should I monitor after stem cell transplant?

You may have the following tests:a complete blood count (CBC) to check for abnormal blood cell counts.blood chemistry tests to show how well certain organs are working.imaging tests, such as a chest x-ray, a CT scan, an MRI or an ultrasound, to get helpful information about the organs.More items...

How do you know if a bone marrow transplant is successful?

When the new stem cells multiply, they make more blood cells. Then your blood counts will go back up. This is one way to know if a transplant was a success.

Can you drink wine after a bone marrow transplant?

After your transplant, your organs need time to recover. Alcohol can harm your liver and recovering bone marrow. This harm can be worse if you're taking medications that can affect your liver. Don't drink alcohol until your doctor tells you it's safe.

Can you drink alcohol after bone marrow transplant?

After your bone marrow transplant, you might have decreased liver function due to the effects of high-dose chemotherapy, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), or metabolism of medicines. Since the liver metabolizes alcohol, avoid all alcoholic beverages.

What is the life expectancy after a stem cell transplant?

The relative mortality rate was high early after transplant as expected (standardized mortality ratio [SMR], 34.3 in the first 2-5 years) but persisted beyond 30 years (SMR, 5.4). Factors estimating mortality included age, high-risk disease, chronic GVHD, and use of PBSC grafts.

What are the long term side effects of a bone marrow transplant?

Long-term side effectsInfertility, meaning you cannot become pregnant or make a woman pregnant when you want to.Cataracts, an eye condition that causes cloudy vision.Sexual side effects and early menopause.Thyroid problems.Lung or bone damage.Another cancer.

What are the odds of surviving a bone marrow transplant?

A 2016 study of over 6,000 adults with AML found that people who received an autologous bone marrow transplant had a 5-year survival rate of 65%. For those who received an allogenic bone marrow transplant, it was 62%.

What Happens When leukemia comes back after bone marrow transplant?

Relapse generally results from residual malignant cells that survive the preparative regimen and are not eliminated by the graft-vs-leukemia effect. In a minority of patients, relapse appears to occur in donor-derived cells. Relapse may occur by immune escape from graft-vs-leukemia effects.

Why is it important to match a patient to the right donor?

Matching a patient to the right donor is important in ensuring the best outcome in BMT. The larger centres, which have a lot of experience transplanting patients with CGD, will have demonstrated success with a variety of types of donor.

Is BMT good for CGD?

It is extremely important to understand the impact of BMT on people with CGD. It has been recognised, and indeed recommended, that wherever possible BMT should be undertaken when a patient is well. However, people with CGD often go into transplant with chronic infection (usually with fungus) or with chronic inflammation, such as colitis. Management of these symptoms before, during and after BMT is key in ensuring good outcomes. This is one reason why experience of BMT for CGD is important.

Can complications occur with BMT?

In BMT, complications can happen for many reasons, as there are several stages involved in the procedure. What is important is early recognition of complications and early intervention, and this is helped by the experience the BMT team has with dealing with these situations. It is therefore important to know what specific experience the centre has in dealing with the complications of CGD transplants.

What do you love about BMT?

Some of what I love about BMT is there is a big emphasis on "team nursing" -- so much of what we do has to be double checked by other RNs at the bedside (Chemos/Blood Products/Drip Changes/Narcotic PCAs) so everyone works together a lot. You also work with patients for such an extended period of time that you really get to know them well. I love the psycho-social support aspect, personally, and with the kiddos we do so much to keep things fun and interesting and developmentally appropriate. I love the critical care aspect also (nerd alert!) and really do a lot of review and education regularly.

What happens if you don't have WBC?

With no WBC counts, they are prone to infection, their bone marrow is essentially non-existent so they need multiple platelet and blood transfusion (or FFP, Albumin...) until their counts are back up. Antibiotics/Antivirals/Antifungals are the norm. The chemo can be cardiotoxic, hepatotoxic, and can fry the kidneys, so knowing those systems are important. Knowing all the systems is important...and signs those symptoms are shutting down. Managing, pain, fevers, nausea (look up antiemetics), fatigue, mucositis, GI issues/weight loss, emotional support, the process of being in isolation for weeks to months..."those walls can close in fast"

How long does it take to get an auto transplant?

This is based on my experience of having some of my home care patients go through it. For auto transplants, I've seen as short as 3 weeks and as long as 6-8 weeks. Allo transplants are typically in for longer. I had a patient who went in for an allo transplant who was in for more than 2 months. It seems that most patients end up on TPN, PCAs and numerous IV antibiotics post-transplant.

How many patients can a stem cell nurse have?

When I worked in the hospital, the nurses on the stem cell unit never had more than 2-3 patients, day or night. I do, however, have a friend who works in stem cell at another hospital across the street and she can have as many as 4-5 patients at night.

Is BMT a type A nurse?

And I forgot the mention: BMT nurses are a super unique kind of wonderful -- often a bit type A, but extremely compassionate and fantastic colleagues.

Did I do senior practicum in BMT?

I did my senior practicum in BMT too & LOVED it. It's not for everyone, but it was definitely for me. I remember it being a steep learning curve because, as you mentioned, we really hadn't learned much about BMT during nursing school.

Can you get sick from BMT?

Folks get super sick on BMT -- we " condition" them with very high-dose chemotherapy (Imagine the equivalent of 1 years worth of chemo given over 6 days) that ablates the bone marrow, then we infuse them with either donor stem cells (allogeneic) or their own cells (autologous, sometimes called a "rescue") -- then we manage the symptoms of the high dose chemos et al while they grow their new marrow/immune system back. Those who receive cells from a donor source take a lot longer, and require immunosuppressive drugs for life so they don't reject the transplant.