From the first
time our family visited the Gift of Life Transplant home in Rochester, MN I
felt perfectly comfortable with lodging there.
The entire staff exuded confidence, kindness, and respect for each guest
and patient staying at their facility.
On that first visit to the G.O.L home our family was given a tour of the
faculties. During this tour there was
one thing above all else that left a lasting impression on me.
I was truly amazed
at how clean everything was kept at the home and how serious everyone was in
regards to keeping it that way. Since I
had never before seen a place such as the G.O.L home I was surprised by the
constant collective effort needed by all in order to keep everything sanitized. During my time down in Rochester, I learned
that this steadfast diligence is maintained in order to protect patients from
infection. Patients who are going to
receive a transplant usually already have a weakened immune system; therefore,
guarding against infections becomes a serious matter for people around
transplant patients.
One of the rules
regarding staying at the G.O.L home was that the period of stay was determined
by the vicissitudes of their convalescence; thus, the period of stay could be
flexible to cater to the needs of those already staying at the home. This flexible lodging arrangement did have a
drawback though for those looking to reserve lodging in advance of their stay
at the home. Since lodging could not be
guaranteed, our group could not be certain of our reservations at the home
until several weeks leading up to receiving treatments in Rochester.
Overall, our
whole group was extremely impressed with our tour of the facilities and decided
that we would pursue lodging at the G.O.L home.
Fortunately, when the time came there were rooms available for our
family at the home.
In total, I
spent over two weeks in Rochester from the beginning of my time home in August
until I left for China in February. The
vast majority of that time in Rochester was spent at the G.O.L home with my
father. My time of stay with my father in
Rochester contained two main periods of treatments for his cancer. The first week we spent in Rochester
consisted mainly of pre-physical examinations which all patients must pass in advance
of receiving a transplant.
After dad passed
all of his exams he was cleared for transplant on that first Friday that we
were down in Rochester. The stem-cell
transplant was definitely one of the highlights of my experience back home over
the past six months. It just cannot be
overstated how wonderful of an experience it was for all of us.
During these
weeks dad and I often talked, played card games, read, watched television, or
went on short walks together. Overall,
the time spent at the G.O.L. home seemed to go by pretty slow for me which
meant that the time went by ten times slower for my father. Honestly, listing all of the rules and
restrictions placed on a transplant recipient would be too arduous of a task
for this blog. Let us just say that I
admired my dad's courage for going through those long and gloomy days of
recovery with only me at his side.
At the end of my
two weeks down in Rochester my mother came down to replace me as the primary-care
giver for dad. On the advent of my return
to Eden Prairie I felt a sense of achievement at not allowing dad's health to
depreciate too much during our time together.
I also was happy to know that I had played a positive role in keeping my
dad's spirits high during some of those tough early days down in
Rochester.
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