"Comfort Kits" are groupings of items that made the biggest difference for me while I was going through treatment for acute myeloid leukemia and during bone marrow transplant. These items included, most importantly, a bed pad, also a latex pillow all covered by very soft sheets and a comforter. All items are machine washable and bacterial resistant.
For the long periods of time that I spent in the hospital going through these treatments, these items were so comforting to me. When first diagnosed you really don't know what you need or have time to assemble your own comforts. We want to have a package ready for newly diagnosed and admitted people to enter the hospital with some comfort waiting for them. My husband brought these items to me one at a time and we found that they made such a difference. He did this for another patient as well and she couldn't stop thanking him for the thoughtfullness and comfort that it provided. It made all of the time spent ill in bed much more bearable and maybe a little cozy.
My first stay in the hospital was almost two months and I was in a couple of other times for more than a month at a time. The items got plenty of use and continued to be a source of great comfort.We would like to bring this type of comfort to other people going through this very difficult time in their lives.
We anticipate approximately 100 newly diagnosed AML patients per year to the University of Pennsylvania and the "Comfort Kits" cost approximately $400.00, so our goal for 2010 will be to raise $40,000.00 to provide this service.
Other services we are interested in providing for AML and bone marrow treatment patients would be to have laptop computers on the floors that can be "checked out" by patients on admission and returned at discharge. This way people can have a clean laptop to use for emailing, playing games, watching movies and listening to music and accessing the internet therefore maintaining a connection to the outside world. I found it very hard to focus and was often too ill to read but loved to listen to books on CD.
Our goal is to provide two computers per leukemia floor, which are Rhoads Three, Rhoads Six and Rhoads Seven for the bone marrow transplant patients. We hope to raise and additional $10,000 for this.