Dispatches from TransplantLand: Day +8

I've had a number of emails asking how things are going with my sister's stem cell transplant, so I decided to post some reports to my blog. I thought this might also give some previews for anyone who might have a gig as a caregiver for a stem cell transplant patient in their future.

My sister has Multiple Myeloma, which is a rare bone cancer. You can read more about her and her disease at her MyelomaBlog.

This is Day 8 of the transplant process, but I arrived in Durham, North Carolina on Monday August 27, which is actually 10 days ago. On Tuesday (Day -1) she had chemotherapy, then Wednesday (Day 0) and Thursday (Day +1) she had the stem cells that were previously harvested from her own blood reinfused.

On Tuesday, August 28 we moved into a 2-bedroom apartment just off highway 15-501 between Durham and Chapel Hill. Those are pictures of our apartment at the top. As Beth said, if we were 25 we'd think it was nice. All kidding aside, it's quite adequate for the two of us. There is a pool (more about that later), tennis courts, a beach volleyball court, and a playground. It's a furnished place, but we didn't know what to expect, so there are a lot of supplies that we didn't bring. Consequently, I ended up making a lot of trips to various grocery and discount stores for household items. We needed paper towels, cleaning supplies, etc. etc. I started making a list that will eventually be made available to people coming to Duke for stem cell transplants in the future. No point in everybody reinventing the wheel. I'm a "desert island" shopper, which means when I go shopping, I do it as if I'm going to be stranded for the next year. I try to anticipate everything. That means I tend to overbuy. But with household supplies I can always take them home and use them later. In the first few days I must have made an average of two shopping trips a day.

I should also mention here that our brother was supposed to come and help us move all our stuff from the motel where we spent Monday night to the apartment--a whole carload of stuff. True to form, he didn't show up at the time agreed upon. When we finally tracked him down he was noncommittal about getting there at all. We finally ended up doing the move ourselves in the 98 degree heat on the afternoon of Beth's chemotherapy. I left some of the heavier bags in my car for him to carry in when he finally arrived. All the family craziness will come in another post.