You will need a central line for harvesting, usually done in interventional radiology under sedation. You
are taught how to give yourself growth factors to stimulate your stem cells. I also had Mozibil to make
the cells come out of my bone marrow. You go to the clinic and they check your blood to see if you have
enough stem cells in circulation. You are them hooked to an apheresis machine to collect your cells.
Some people have to go only one day, others take several days. Took me two days to get enough for two
transplants. They like to get enough for two, if possible. They then freeze your cells. Apparently they can
be frozen for many years. You can be inpatient or outpatient for the transplant. Depends on the center
you go to. I was admitted to the hospital and given high dose Melphalan that night. You will want to
chew on ice while the chemo is infusing so you don't get mouth sores. I rested the next day. The
following day I got my stem cells back in my central line. Took 20-30 mins. By day 6 my white count was
0.0, I had to have blood and platelet transfusions. This is normal. By day 14 my bone marrow had
recovered enough that I could go home. I got sepsis and C diff diarrhea. Had home health for antibiotics.
It was hard but doable. The pre-testing and collection are actually harder than the transplant, for me
anyway. Pre-testing for me included PET scan, bone survey, EKG, Echo, Chest X-ray, bone marrow
biopsy, 19 tubes of blood for labs. You have to meet with the social worker, financial, etc. I was encouraged to walk as much as possible. I hope this helps. It's a lot!

My husband was in the hospital almost three weeks.

Very informative. Sorry about the sepsis and c-diff. That would be just my luck. I got a blood clot from my apheresis when I was first diagnosed.

How long were you in the hospital after the transplant?

I thought those growth factor shots were gonna kill me before I even had a transplant. Thank the Lord I engrafted without taking any more of them.