(Originally posted to Bone Marrow Transplant Survivors as a means of meeting others and discussing Bone Marrow Transplants)
Hi.
I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL), which is a Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in February 2018.
I immediately did 6 cycles of R-CHOP (Nordic Protocol) in accordance with Kaiser-Permanente, Johns Hopkins, and NIH. I was briefly in remission for a little over 2 months while doing Rituxan as a maintenance chemo (I declined BMT in favor of Rituxan).
Doing several cycles of Imbruvica-Venclexta showed no response, so I was moved to R2 (Revlimid-Rituxan) which showed progress by its 4th cycle.
Now after 16 months of chemotherapy and postponing my BMT twice, I’m to be admitted to Johns Hopkins Baltimore for chemotherapy and total body irradiation starting June 14th with the transplant on June 20th, 2019.
At 47 years old with Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL), it’s been a scary ride this past year. Having read so much about MCL and Bone Marrow Transplants, my wife and I are remarkably anxious about what we suspect to be an ordeal ahead.
Are there there other MCL patients in this group? Any advice you’d give to someone about to undergo an Allo (Non-Related Donor) bone marrow stem cell transplant in 3 weeks’ time?