When can I expect to feel Normal again after my Transplant?

Normal is a very subjective term but this is something we all want to know.  The best answer is that everyone is different, but on average it takes about two to three months to return to your pre-transplant state and a 1-2 years to regrow a healthy immune system.

Because you will most likely already be well along on one or more other treatment regimes before your transplant takes place, and depending on the stage your illness has reached at that time, you may be in poor physical shape.  Regaining your normal pre-illness state can take longer, of course, depending on the effort you put into it.

My disease went undiagnosed for almost 8 months, and during that time I also developed a severe thyroid problem (swinging from extreme hyper-thyroidism to extreme hypo-thyroidism), and finally pulmonary embolisms, which put me in the hospital and intensified their search for a cause.  This is when I was diagnosed with Lymphoma.

Because of that I was in particularly bad shape by the time I first started treatment (long before my transplant).  As far as post-transplant recovery goes: I noticed a marked improvement 2-3 months after my transplant, again 6 months after that, and again a year after that.  See my Status Update page for a more detailed chronology.