Month 11 – Follow up visits continue

It is like a regular checkup. You don’t stay in the hospital.
You will get blood tests.
Your doctor checks for side effects or other problems.
Your doctor checks if you are sick from any germs, because your body is still not ready to fight germs.
Your doctor will give you medicines if you need them.

Your doctor will explain the long-term treatment plan.
At first, you will see your doctor about once every week. Later, you will see your doctor once every few months. After a few years, you might see your doctor only once a year.

You can still have some problems after you leave the hospital.

You can still get very sick from germs. Your body cannot fight germs (immunosuppressed) for about 6 months.
If you have graft versus host disease, your doctors will give you medicine to help treat the problems.

Chemotherapy kills your old blood-making stem cells. This means you will not have enough white blood cells (immune system cells) for a few months.
The donated stem cells will start making new white blood cells, but you can still get very sick from germs for a few weeks or months after chemotherapy.
For the first few months, you are at the highest risk of getting very sick from germs. You can get very sick for about 6 to 12 months after chemotherapy.
In the hospital, they take extra care to keep germs away from you. Your doctors will also give you medicine to fight germs once you go home.
You may not be able to visit friends or meet with loved ones for a few weeks even after you have discharged from the hospital.

The donated blood-making stem cells make immune cells that ‘attack’ your body.
These new white blood cells can get confused because your body is not the same as the donor’s body. This is why they can attack your body.
The bone marrow transplant can still work, even if you have this problem.
Your doctors will give you medicine to try to prevent it or stop it if it happens.
People may need to take these medicines to prevent or treat GvHD for several months after transplant.
The medicine does not work for some people. They can get very sick or die.

If graft versus host disease (GvHD) happens, you can have: