stem cell transplant

willdabeast

Hello everyone I am new to this site. I just got discharged from the hospital yesterday after doing a stem cell transplant for relapsed hodgkins lymphoma. Everything went pretty smoothly and my doc said I was in and out faster than most people he's seen. I've always had pretty low blood pressure but after chemo it dropped even more. My average has been around 88/57. It once got as low as 78/46. I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this. Also yeserday a few hours before discharge i went on a walk with my physical therapist and when I got back to my room my heart rate was 160. I had done a decent amount of walking almost everyday I was there and this was the first time my pulse has sky rocketed afterwords. Because of this they gave me a heart monitor to wear for a couple days. Even today my pulse goes up when walking, not quite as high, about 130 or so. My resting pulse is in the normal range but even the slightest movement, like lifting my arm raises my pulse. Has anyone else experienced this?

chisox619

i had autologous in feb

i had autologous back in february and i was released quickly as well but had to see the doctors daily because of low blood pressure and elevated heart rate. a lot of tests were done but docs were confident it was dehydration as your body is very deconditioned and working very hard. 2 bags of IV almost everyday for 2 weeks and then focusing on drinking a lot more, even having pedialite and it finally started to normalize and gradually got better. try drinking as much as you possibly can

Max Former Hodgkins Stage 3

BP

Willdabeast,

Blood pressure like yours can be frightening.  SCT involves so many chemo agents that an individual drug causing your situation would be difficult to identify, but Adriamycin, if you've had it, has known cardio effects at times, although usually much delayed in onset.

As the other writer noted, electrolytes/fluids is a serious possibly.   The low BP itself can trigger a high pulse rate.  I just went through about 5 months with oscillating bp, from astronomical to low, although my situation is from a scewup with prescriptions, not chemo (my gp had swapped meds, experimenting). Depending on your age, a normal rest pulse should be around 80.   Pulse shooting up with any activity is typical of weak cardiac output) ejection fraction.

If the oncologist can't get a handle on this soon, I'd see my cardiologist.....no deep insight there, but worth saying I suppose. 

My next door neighbor just had a pacemaker put in, and her bp 

was about like yours.   She asked the cardiologist about it, and he reviewed her file and said "stop you blood pressure meds for now.". He had just done surgery on her a few days before, and her pressure had been running 75/50, and it required her asking about it for him to tell her to stop by meds. Astonishing.  I have been to the oncologist in the past with the nurses getting 220/120 for a BP, and he NEVER MENTIONED it the whole visit.   

The moral from this is never assume your care providers are paying attention. If you have a problem, you have to make it their problem also.

max