The recipient’s life after transplant
As you take in the enormity of your true act of kindness, you may wonder what’s next?
While most of the hard work is over for you, it’s the beginning of your recipient’s second chance at life.
When your stem cells are couriered (sometimes across the world) to your recipient, it’s their day zero (transplant day) and it’s a big milestone. They’ve got themselves into remission and gone through conditioning to receive your stem cells. For many, transplant day can’t come soon enough. The recipient’s transplant is a relatively straight-forward, short procedure. Your stem cells are infused into the recipient via an IV line, over 10 to 20 minutes.
Once your stem cells have been infused, the recipient starts their first 100 days in isolation.
The First 100 Days
The first 100 days are a waiting game for the recipient. With your newly infused stem cells, the recipient’s medical team are waiting for your cells to engraft. They need to settle in and take over the role of producing new, healthy blood cells. This means the recipient must stay in hospital to keep them safe from infection and to monitor the recipient’s white blood cell count to ensure it’s increasing. It can take a couple of weeks for your stem cells to start creating a brand-new immune system for their host.
Similar to organ donation, the recipient is closely monitored for potential post-transplant complications. It’s important that your stem cells aren’t rejected by the recipient. Being a compatible match improves the recipient’s chance of a successful outcome.
During this time, the recipient can spend up to 100 days post-transplant, in isolation. For the recipient, this means that their friends and family cannot visit them during this time. Not until the recipient’s immune system develops enough to fight off infections. This period can be a challenging time, but many hold onto hope.
Just like Pip did, a former stem cell transplant recipient.
Pip's Post Transplant Story
Pip was in her 40s when she was diagnosed with Leukaemia. She needed a stem cell transplant to save her life and was lucky enough to be matched to an unrelated donor.
Pip is now a couple of years post-transplant. She is living her life and loving every single minute of it. So much so, she wanted to share what life has meant to her post transplant.
After you donate, you may be able to contact your recipient anonymously by sending them letters and cards. This is at yours and your recipient’s discretion. If you decide to contact them, try not to be disheartened if you don’t hear back. Sometimes recipients are still unwell or aren’t sure what to say exactly. Pip wanted to reach out and let you know how she feels about stem cell donors and what her donor means to her. A sentiment that is echoed by many recipients.
If you want to hear more from Pip post-transplant, learn more about her transplant story and what it means to her to be alive, you can watch her full-length video: