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Saturday, March 5, 2011

Stem Cell Transplant Blog day +33 Tips and Tricks

Hello again everyone.

33 days after transplant already. Things are getting better and better. My eyesight is back to what it used to be. Digestion is perfect and my heart seems to be getting back to normal a little more everyday. Feeling a little disappointed about yesterday's post as I expected more feedback and or comments.

Like they say, the only reason we have deceptions is because we have expectations, so It's up to me to keep on rolling no matter what. I do not Blog everyday as I had promised myself but I accept the fact that I'm not always up to it yet. I'll get there soon!

Anyway, as promise a while back, here are some tricks I tried and succeeded at.

When I got back home form the transplant my priorities were to stop the diarrhea and nausea ASAP.

So here's what I did. First I took some Imodium to slow things down the first evening. Then I started taking Psyllium right away. Psyllium has the fantastic virtues of stopping both diarrhea and or constipation. It does that by absorbing and retaining water. You can either get it in bulk at your local health food store and mix it with juice or water or go the lazy way like me and just go to your local drugstore and buy Metamucil Capsules. Psyllium is all it contains! Don't buy the powdered version of Metamucil as it contains artificial flavors and sweeteners. Take 2 capsules 3 times a day with a glass of water and make sure you drink enough throughout the day. I haven't had to take Imodium since that first evening. Psyllium really works! At least for me!

Now for the nausea, well I found that if I waited too long to eat something after getting up in the morning I would spontaneously get nausea and vomiting after just 5 minutes after getting up but with hardly anything coming out! So instead of waiting till I was done washing up and all, I started to make sure I had prepared something the evening before and either eat or drink something as soon as I would get up. And it worked perfectly! So I suggest you do the same. If you like it, simply have a bottle of Insure close by and just have a few sips to get something in your stomach ASAP. After that if it's the first few days after getting back home, make sure you eat small meals throughout the day to keep the nausea at bay! I started by eating small meals every 2 hours until I worked myself up to 3 regular meals a day. I made it and now, no more nausea and or vomiting and no more diarrhea either.

Hope this is helpful to someone!

Keep Fighting!

Yvon

7 comments:

Stem Cell Transplant said...

Hey this is one of the nice experience, I like it a lot and thanks.

Anonymous said...

Good to see your blog. Keep fighting and smiling. Just sent you an email.
I accompanied Martin to his chemo yesterday, he tolerated it well.
He is scheduled to come home from rehab hospital on Friday.
Am back in Florida tonight.
Best regards to Sabrina,
Roslyn

patty said...

Hello,
I was just diagnosed wih mm in January..have now started my 2nd round of chemo. After this i will have a consult with an oncologist to see about the stem cell rescue. I will look for some more blogs..maybe you explain more in detail..someone told me she lost her hair during the stem cell rescue...is this true? Also, that she went in the hospital for this for a while...
Thanks for any info...Patty

Again, i will search for more of your blogs.

The Myeloma Fighter said...

Hi Patty

Yes it is possible to loose your hair because of the chemo you get prior to the cell harvest. Personally I stayed 2 days at the Hospital.

Yvon

Sandy said...

Yvon - great info about the Psyllium.. I have a relative with MM and pass on useful information. Have you ever used Oscillo? It is made by Boiron, a natural element provider in France. It is intending for fighting flu symptoms, but I have used it after flying because I used to get ill after every flight with so many people coughing. But I also haven't had flu in four years taking the Oscillo - don't believe in flu shots.

Cord Blood Banking said...

I am extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it is rare to see a nice blog like this one these days.

The Myeloma Fighter said...

Thank you "Cord Blood Banking" for the compliments. No I did not pay for this blog . Just used the templates they have. Pretty easy actually.!

Yvon