This web page is reserved for people with first-hand experience receiving a stem cell transplant. If you’re looking for someone to describe what it’s like to receive a transplant – you’ve come to the right palce.

We’ve interviewed more than two dozen transplant recipients since beginning this project in 2009. And while we’re grateful to them all for freely sharing their stories, we never have the time to allow them to describe their experience in depth. So we have carved out this space for those experiences to be shared.

We started by bringing together three of our adult stem cell transplant Alumni:

  • Jackie Stollfus, a lupus patient who received an adult stem cell transplant in 2010.
  • Tony Underhill, a scleroderma patient who received his transplant in 2012
  • Desiree Ramirez, a sickle cell patient who was given a stem cell transplant in 2016.

Below you’ll find their answers to a series of questions. They allowed us to listen to their discussions on a number of topics and experiences. We hope you’ll be encouraged to share your stories and we’ll update this page regularly.

Side Effects From Medications

When I was in the hospital, I couldn’t see. I thought I was going to be doing all these crossword puzzles and stuff like that. I couldn’t even focus on the TV.

Read Script

Visitors, Sterile Rooms & R2D2

“I’m dying in here and you’ve got R2D2 in here.”

Learn about the machine nurses used to sterilize the rooms during these patients’ clinic trials.

Read Script

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