First day at the Hospital

What a a long day! We left home at around 7:30 am and after fighting unusally heavy traffic enroute, made it to the hospital just in time for surgery.  The attending vascular surgeon implanted a catheter which runs all the way from Sujata's upper chest area to the neck, providing doctors access to her blood stream.  This catheter will be with her for the next few months, serving as the main pathway for all infusions.

Sujata tolerated the surgery well but seemed to be in some discomfort from having this large foreign object stuck in her... hopefully, she will get used to it soon.

Her room at the BMT center is rather unusal.  Imagine a 6*9 shower stall with a very thick transparent plastic shower curtain.  When her immunity is down, as it will be after a few weeks of treatment, visitors can see her through this transparent curtain. And for privacy, there is an opaque curtain that can be drawn or opened at the flip of a switch.

For the next six days, starting tomorrow, Sujata will receive heavy does of chemo that will destroy her cancerous bone marrow and get her ready for receiving the donor's stem cells.

I have uploaded some pictures of her room  in Picasweb.  See the link on the left.  I have to figure out how to add these pictures to this website.

Visiting Sujata at the hospital

The room number is 208A, 11 th Floor, Center Wing.  You can enter the hospital either from Fifth Avenue or Madison Avenue and take the East elevators to the 11th.  floor and follow signs to the Oncology Care Center.

I found out today that they have pretty strict rules about visiting patients at the BMT center, manily because of the danger of infection.  So for those planning to visit, please wait a day or two and I will post the visiting hours and the rules with the next few days.

Thank you all

..for you heartfelt words of support and good wishes in your individual emails  and in your posts in the website.  I don't have the words to tell what they have meant to all of us -- Sujata, me and the children.  I know that when Sujata is feeling down and depressed, as I am sure she will be many times in the coming months, all she has to do is read your messages to get her spirits up. She is indeed blessed to have friends like all of you.