The most helpful things to get for the leukemia patient

Here are links to things that we have bought that have helped my dad through this entire process, both while he was in the hospital getting chemotherapy or when he was at home. I’ve left out the more obvious things such as warm clothing/hats, entertainment, and nutritious food.

While in the hospital

PICC line cover

Before we found out about this, we would spend about 15 to 20 minutes every evening carefully wrapping my dad’s PICC line with a plastic bag that the nurses gave us and then taping the bag to my dad’s skin. This caused skin reactions to the tape that was used. After induction, I found out about reusable PICC line covers; I wish I had found out about these when the PICC line was placed. This was a complete game changer and now showering is no longer an ordeal, both in the hospital and at home. I’ve linked the exact one that we buy (we have two); the neoprene has kept the water out and has not failed us yet. We wrap the PICC line with plastic wrap, however, before putting the PICC line cover on, just to be safe.

Tummy Drops (or any Peppermint drop)

My dad very rarely took any Zofran during his chemotherapy sessions. My girlfriend first gave us a bag of these Tummy Drops which helped his nausea. They were developed by a GI doctor for his patients originally and they did a decent job in helping my dad’s nausea. When the nausea was bad, he would take a couple of these a day but tried not to take too many because of the sugar content. Similarly, he drank a lot of peppermint tea which helped as well. We brought him an electric kettle, as well, to boil water quickly for his tea (as opposed to calling for the nurse to bring him hot water).

Portable Food Warmers

My mom liked to make home cooked meals for my dad. In the mornings, I would drive breakfast and lunch over to my dad from home. Breakfast we would eat hot and lunches would be stored in an insulated lunch box. About an hour or so before lunch, I put the ready made meals into these warmers and, by lunch time, the meals would be hot. You should check with your unit, however, to make sure that home cooked meals are allowed, as your hospital may have different rules regarding neutropenic diet and foods.

Walking Slippers - “Propet Cush N Foot Slipper”

My dad’s feet would not fit into his normal shoes when he was in the hospital during induction because of all the edema from the IV fluids he was receiving. I found these shoes - “walking slippers” - that were developed as diabetic shoes but worked really well. They are easy to put on (the front cover is secured with velcro and is wide, allowing to foot to be placed in the shoe quite easily), cover the whole foot with thick material to prevent bruised toes, and have a firm and thick sole for comfortable walking. We bought 1 size up and the X-wide version which worked out well. My dad walked sometimes up to 7 miles a day in the hospital hallways with these shoes and both his feet and the shoes have held up well.

Sleep Eye Mask

Sleeping in the hospital is not the easiest thing with all of the light pollution coming from outside the room as well as any light from any monitors within the room. These sleep masks helped my Dad get better sleep by blocking out all light. The nice thing about this specific mask is that there is a noticeable silky cushion around the inner perimeter of the mask which takes pressure off the eyeballs and makes the whole experience pretty comfortable. I used them as well when sleeping on the sofa in the hospital room and can attest to their quality as well. They also come with ear plugs to help drown the noise out.

Amazon Fire Stick

Okay, this is the only thing on this list that we never actually got for Dad, mainly because he doesn’t like watching television, but lots of chemotherapy patients have found this very helpful. You just stick this “Fire Stick” into the hospital TV in the room and then you can watch Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, or HBO and browse a bunch of channels and things. They’re pretty affordable at ~$40 and can provide a lot of customized entertainment on the hospital TV, which usually only have a handful of pretty dull channels.

While at home

Curos Caps

Curos caps are the small green caps that the nurses place on PICC line ports and IV ports to keep the ports clean between uses. When they discharged my dad during after induction, the discharge planner told him that the Curos caps were not needed at home and that the PICC port was fine without them, as long as an alcohol swab was used to wipe the ports for 15 seconds before use. In my mind, however, it just made sense to have one on when the port was not being used , just as another layer of protection to the PICC line. They are pricey to buy, about $100 for 270 caps (which should last more than a year if you factor in inpatient hospital stays), but if you can afford it, they seem worth it, at the very least for your own peace of mind.

Thermometer

You’re going to be checking your temperature a fair amount when at home. This one by Vick’s was affordable and has been very reliable. You’ll need disposable thermometer covers for this (also works with a number of other thermometers) and this pack of 500 will last you for a while.

Alexa Echo

I never believed in Amazon’s Alexa series before but my dad already had one before and I was surprised at how helpful Alexa was. The main things was the reminders — on the phone app, you can program Alexa to alert you at different times. This was very helpful for taking medications on time. If you have a few around the house, you can tell Alexa to broadcast a message and then Alexa will record a small voice clip and then broadcast it to all the Alexa units in the house, which was great so that my Dad could ask for things without talking loudly if we weren’t in the room. There are a variety of Alexa units — the Echo Dot is about $25 — that you can chose from which all essentially do the same thing.

Large Bean Bag

And I mean large. My dad has spent a lot more time in his bedroom since he got sick and often would sit by the window. To make things more comfortable for him, and to find a comfortable lounging piece of furniture somewhere between a bed and a sofa, I bought him a large ~8 foot bean bag. This has provided a perfect place to lounge and has allowed him to be comfortable in his bedroom, without having to be laying down in bed.