Has anyone had a stem cell transplant for their scleroderma?

[onthemend]

[Anteater]

No, but I think I did read something about it sometime ago .... Think it may be or not yet started research into it yet !!!

[zenabb]

Not myself but my cousin in the US has had one for her lungs. It has worked fantastically well. I think that it is starting veery slowly in this country. She had it about five years ago but insurance companies refused to fund it as it was at the research stage, and it was very difficult to find the money. A company that specialises in fund raising and volunteers like our family funded it.

[mirandamae1971]

I wanted to be involved with that study for that treatment so bad, but it is like $10000.00 procedure just for the transplant alone, my insurance wouldn't even consider it. I am still disappointed and a bit angry about it. I felt it was going to be the "answer".

Are you considering this? Keep us posted about this decision and process...

[living-the-dream-ssc-ray]

Hi I was due to have a stem cell transplant back in 1999 Christmas time, if I did not respond to the intense iv cyclophosphamide methotrexate regime I was subjected to at the time. I have never prayed so hard in my life as I did at that time, as I so did not want to have the procedure. I used to lie on the hospital bed hooked up to the drip, feeling so nauseous, thinking this stuff is going to work... and thank goodness it did ! I am sure that I have had every medication possible for diffuse ssc and raynauds except this was one ! However, with the advance in medical science the stem cell procedure seems to be the way forward for the body correcting and reprogramming its cells back to healthy ones. Maybe this would have been a sensible alternative to the last 14 years of feeling sick / bloated / fatigued / etc