Post-Transplant - what now?

Following discharge from the transplant unit your future care will be provided by your local referring haematology consultant team and you will attend their clinic. Initially you will be seen weekly however the referring team may decide to decrease the frequency as you continue to improve.

You'll be seen by the Glasgow team up until day 30. After day 30 you will be seen by your referring team weekly. The Glasgow team will also see you on day 60 and day 90. 

Your follow up care will be shared between your local referring team and the Glasgow team. You will be given a plan for your appointments on discharge. You will generally be seen twice weekly initially. Once at clinic, future appointments will be made from there.

You will be required initially to have your bloods obtained twice a week. 

The bloods that are required each time you attend will be: 

FBC, Reticulocytes, UEs, LFTs, GGT, CRP, LDH, Magnesium, Bone Profile, CMV/EBV/Adenovirus PCR, glucose.  

Depending what drug you are on, drug levels will be required (Ciclosporin level, tacrolimus level, sirolimus level).  

Remember not to take these medications prior to having your bloods obtained. 

Lorna Welsh is the Clinical Nurse Specialist for post allograft transplant patients within the Glasgow team. She works along with the Consultants and reviews patients who have undergone Allograft transplants by video call at the BMT post-transplant outpatient clinic. She has a special interest in Graft Versus Host Disease and performs regular assessments on patients who develop this.  

Her role involves supporting patients post-transplant from discharge onwards. You may have the opportunity to meet Lorna before you go home but if not you will see her at clinic.  

You will also receive a telephone appointment just after Day 100 where she go over some additional information with you and again at 1 year post transplant. 

Lorna’s working days are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and can be contacted on 0141 451 6231/ 07970372711.  If she is unable to answer your call you can leave a message and your call will be returned. If you are unwell it is always Ward 4B that you contact. The details can be found in the useful information section. Further support information about Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD) can be found here.

From two years post-transplant Laura Meehan will become involved with your post-transplant care. Laura runs a nurse led Late Effects Clinic and will work with you to provide health education, helping you to live with any side effect that you may experience. She will provide support and signpost on to other specialities as required. These appointments will be over the telephone, once a year, and will involve a discussion about your general health and aims to identify any problems that may be arising, looking at not only physical problems but psychological and social issues in the aim of helping you maintaining a good quality of life. You can find more information about this clinic in this leaflet.

Following transplant you will be required to receive vaccinations as any immunity you previously had from these will be lost due to the nature of your treatment. Your vaccination schedule can be found on your protocol and will start from D90 and run until 36 months. The process for how these are arranged can vary from area to area so if you find that you haven’t received a vaccination appointment around D90 then we would advise you to contact your referring team.