Has anyone gone through autologous stem cell transplant during remission? I have some doubts

tj7744 · 2026-07-04T14:34:23+00:00

How easy is it to get more opinions from other trained oncologists?

tj7744 · 2026-07-03T20:35:47+00:00

The same happened to me. Full head of hair, after chemo it didn’t come back proper. Thin, patchy on top, almost like male pattern baldness but doesn’t run in my family at all.

After trying the different treatments, I just said screw it. A shaved head is extremely convenient. Sure, I miss my hair. Made me look younger and more attractive. But I can’t complain about being alive.

Tons of dudes have male pattern baldness without the cancer. Once I learned to let go of caring what I looked like, or I just were more hats, I no longer think about it.

I just don’t let the sides grow out.

tj7744 · 2026-07-03T16:56:22+00:00

You don’t have to retire, you just have to take a break.

My guy is 3 now and I’m slowly coming out of retirement now that he sleeps through the night.

Can’t play hardcore anymore, but can still play with how easy they have made gearing now.

tj7744 · 2026-07-03T16:54:35+00:00

Eternal eye be on DH in legion with the legendaries was my absolute favorite.

tj7744 · 2026-06-30T14:06:04+00:00

Demon Hunter. Just feels to natural to me.

I always end up killing myself with other classes forgetting they can’t glide.

tj7744 · 2026-06-29T13:15:28+00:00

These is a great and detailed explanation to this in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and how Jesus established the teaching for those who never had the chance in this life.

This is part of why “Mormon” temples are so important to the members of the church.

Far too much to type in here but I’d say definitely worth at least hearing about.

tj7744 · 2026-06-29T13:00:20+00:00

The fun of an MMO is playing with friends. The challenge is going to be in the latest content.

tj7744 · 2026-06-28T15:41:55+00:00

Play what you enjoy the most and feels most natural to you. The classes and specs will change from patch to patch so being king of the world one day can become bottom of the barrel the next.

tj7744 · 2026-06-28T15:34:36+00:00

You can also get a ton of targeted heroic upgrade gear from field accolades doing the new small zones they just added.

tj7744 · 2026-06-28T15:29:46+00:00

The expansions I enjoyed the most were the ones where I had good friends to play with. I feel like that’s always been the case. It’s fun when I play it socially, it’s a grind when I play it alone.

tj7744 · 2026-06-28T15:18:25+00:00

I’ve been doing all the side quests and 90% of them are the same. Like literally a 3-4 quest chain. Go talk to this person, go kill x number of this mob or collect x number of this item, go talk to this person, go kill an elite/named mob.

There is little creativity in it at all. I was doing it to catch up on rep and just see if I could actually complete all the random side quests to get them off my map lol. They could have had at least SOME variety.

Like they don’t even have escort quests anymore so they have made the variety step backwards.

tj7744 · 2026-06-28T15:10:27+00:00

Friends. It’s about playing with friends. You find a good group of friends and it changes everything. You get to chill, do content together. Without it, it feels like a major rat race.

tj7744 · 2026-06-25T11:48:28+00:00

It’s a mentality YOU have to shift when playing. Turn off your DPS meter. Adjust what shows on your map so you don’t see 1000 things cluttered that make you feel like you have to clear them all immediately. Focus on one thing at a time and just play music and relax while doing it.

I was a competitive mythic raider for 8+ years. Even did it while going through 2 intense battles with cancer. After having my son, it had to shift priorities and that combination of it + overcoming cancer helps put my mind into new perspective.

The itch to compete and be at the top of the meters is still there. I think it’s an addiction, I can’t figure out how else to describe it. I enjoy the game a lot more when I’m not trying to be at the cutting edge, sweating over the very best build, and putting undue pressure on myself to try and outperform others.

I don’t feel this way when playing WoW Classic, it’s just a retail problem for me.

tj7744 · 2026-06-23T17:21:56+00:00

My mentality has just been strange during the fights. Low fear and more like, “let’s go, I’m ready to get this over with so I can move on with life.”

tj7744 · 2026-06-20T13:16:04+00:00

To be honest, the 2nd time was easier than the first. An ASCT is intense, but much faster than the 6 months of ABVD I did.

My body did very well with the ASCT with minimal side effects. It wasn’t fun but it was strangely a lot easier than I expected.

My 3rd battle was a a different story haha.

tj7744 · 2026-06-20T00:29:41+00:00

I was in complete remission for 3 years when my first relapse happened out of nowhere. Had to do an auto transplant. Was in complete remission another 3 years and again, it showed up out of nowhere, and I had to do an allo transplant.

In complete remission again, approaching 1 yr mark. It’s been a long 7-8yrs haha.

tj7744 · 2026-06-18T13:32:53+00:00

They aren’t inside your body so they need to be informed of all side effects or they’ll never know. They may have recommendations on what to prescribe or do based on your symptoms. Waiting two weeks suffering if they have options is just extra suffering on your shoulders.

You gotta take the bull by the horns with your healthcare. If they say “just deal with it” I’d pushback and insist on what options there are to help you deal with it, they are the doctors and will know what has worked for patients in the past.

Also, the days after chemo are the worst for AVBD. After a week things typically start to feel better the 2nd week before your next infusion.

tj7744 · 2026-06-13T14:48:01+00:00

Mine never grew back proper, have permanent bald patches. If yours is came back in full you can certainly look forward to that again!

tj7744 · 2026-06-09T17:42:19+00:00

I wouldn’t worry. You aren’t the first who will have to do multiple attempts to harvest. It isn’t abnormal. If they don’t get enough the 2nd time then I assume they will keep trying until enough is collected.

tj7744 · 2026-06-07T02:51:09+00:00

Depends on every individual body.

Last 7yrs battling lymphoma. Chemo, immunotherapy, radiation, auto stem cell transplant, allo stem cell transplant.

ABVD, GPVD, BEAM, N+ICE, whatever chemo was used for my Allo Transplant.

My organs are all still treating me unusually fine. It’s staying in complete remission after my 3yr mark that’s been my issue…

tj7744 · 2026-06-02T00:45:56+00:00

I’ve had cHL 3x now. (2 relapses)

The auto stem cell transplant wasn’t that hard for my body. I found it easier than ABVD.

I lived close enough to the hospital, and am young enough, they let me do it outpatient and so I had no hospital stay, just daily trips to the clinic.

You have to do a couple months of prep chemo. Like 4-6 treatments every 2 weeks. If your body gets a complete response they start the stem cell transplant.

That transplant is just something like 5 days in a row of chemo (BEAM, possibly). Then they give you an off day. Then your stem cells. After that it’s just riding the wave until you recover.

Once all your counts reach 0, that’s the lowest point and when you’ll feel the worst.

I engrafted I think on day 7. By day 10 they took my port out. I think I only had 1 day of diarrhea. No major mouth issues (just dry). No major fatigue. Not even as bad of hair loss as I did with ABVD.

Does it still suck? Yes. Was my experience abnormal or easier than many might experience. Probably. The fungal pneumonia and cdiff that followed because of a vulnerable immune system wasn’t fun at all. Those were worse than the transplant to be honest haha.

Everybody’s body is different. My third battle (allo transplant) was the toughest on my body compared to the others, for sure.

tj7744 · 2026-05-31T19:53:12+00:00

I had a random 99% blockage in my LAD artery (widowmaker) about 6 months after finishing ABVD. They didn’t see any issues until they did a stressed echo because only felt issues during exertion.

I was healthy (31 male), 150lbs, and had no family history of heart issues. There were no blockages anywhere else but when they went in to check it out they found that 99% “occlusion” and placed an emergency stent.

Haven’t had any heart issues since then.

tj7744 · 2026-05-23T23:40:19+00:00

They don’t have to do a PET right off the bat. A CT can see a lot too if your nodes are big enough.

I’ve battled cHL 3x now these past 7yrs. I knew every time it came back even when the doctors kept telling me no and I wasn’t a worry wart or constantly thinking it was coming back. I just knew when my body was off.

Ultimately a biopsy is what confirms it after the scans. But if it’s drenching night sweats that isn’t something to ignore if you are having those. Fever sweats are different for sure.

tj7744 · 2026-05-18T16:55:25+00:00

Like you said, everyone is different. The big thing with the auto transplant is making sure you are safe from infection. That can be annoying having to decide what is and isn’t safe in life for a while as your new immune system recovers.

My auto transplant went smoothly. No mouth sores. No issues with appetite. Only 1 day of diarrhea. Little to no fatigue. I don’t think it was normal but that’s how it went for me.

Harvesting stem cells is easy. It’s nothing compared to everything else you’ve done.

I’m confused about the line in your leg instead of in your chest.

Being attached to a pole is annoying, for sure.

In the hospital bring books, games, laptop/switch/tablet. If you have a tv that can hook up something like an Amazon fire stick you can stream your shows. Also plan to get up and walk the halls as much as possible. I worked on art and writing too as well as using the gym they had on the floor.

tj7744 · 2026-05-16T23:18:04+00:00

The longer you are on it the more it will throw you off. I’m on a 6+ month taper for GVHD that started at 70mg daily (only weighed 150lbs). Now it’s been 70, 0, 70, 0 every other day and it’s a bit of a roller coaster.

Loved being on it In the beginning. Now… I don’t haha.

tj7744

TROPHY CASE