In some cases you may be able to
spend less time as an in-patient than has been normal in the past. More and more transplant centers are moving
toward this option when it’s reasonable to do so.
Most of the qualifying and
pre-transplant tests and procedures are done on an out-patient basis, with the
exception of bone-marrow harvesting. There
are, however, several crucial transplant steps where close observation and
ready access to a medical staff and emergency facilities is warranted. Many patients will spend several weeks after
their transplant in the hospital under strict quarantine to watch for organ
failure or infection.
Some patients, however, will go
home directly after their transplant and receive follow-up care as an
outpatient. This is either due to a
lesser degree of chemo or radiation therapy required and/or because the
patient’s health insurance doesn’t cover this portion of the in-patient
procedure. Here are two different
patient scenarios for comparison:
I received eight days of intensive
chemotherapy to treat my Lymphoma. Two
days later the transplant was performed, and I stayed in the hospital for an
additional eighteen days after that. My
nephew Carlos had a different experience in the treatment of his myeloma. His disease required just two days of
chemotherapy, and two days later, after his transplant, he was immediately
released from the hospital. He continued
the rest of his follow-up treatment as an out-patient.
The good news is that most of the
out-patient qualifying and preliminary tests and procedures, which can often take
one to two months to schedule and complete, actually just encompass days of
your time in total.
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