Preparing for Life After a Bone Marrow Transplant

Each year, many adults and children undergo a bone marrow transplant. For many patients, education and support for the bone marrow transplant process is provided but, most commonly, these education and support programs fail to educate in the area of post-treatment care.

When in need of a bone marrow transplant, it is important to understand not only the details of your procedure, but also the issues surrounding post treatment; such as physical, emotional and psychological complications.

Following a bone marrow transplant, there are a variety of health issues that you may experience, ranging from sleep disorders to fatigue, from muscle cramps to memory deficiencies. While some of these physical complications are short term and temporary, others may linger for many months.

For many bone marrow transplant patients, the key to a return to a healthy life, following a bone marrow transplant, lies, partly, in the patients mental state and ability to overcome minor set backs in recovery. This can be quite complicating especially when the bone marrow patient experiences not only complications and side effects right after the bone marrow transplant surgery but also delayed and long term side effects. As a bone marrow transplant patient, it is important to understand these physical complications will continue for several years but, eventually, you will find that the surgery was successful and lead a relatively normal life.