Best Tips for New Caregivers!

We salute and recognize our caregivers this month.
We thank you for helping us help others too.

Earlier this year, we asked many of you for your best caregiver tips. We wanted to know what would be helpful in equipping new caregivers with the tools they need to sojourn through the transplant process.  You sure answered the call. Thank you! Here are many of the wonderful suggestions below.

  • Caregivers and patients need to work as a team. For example, if the patient is overwhelmed and unable to ask questions, you can share their concerns.
  • Take notes or record medical appointments to be shared later with the patient and loved ones.
  • Consider making a spreadsheet to track medications and treatments. Keep a diary of questions for your team of doctors.
  • Learn who to contact if you need further clarification. Ask for business cards.
  • Respect that each person may wish to have time alone with the doctors.
  • Develop relationships with your nurses. They can make all the difference in your experience.
  • Social workers have many roles. They can help with housing, financial, and emotional concerns.
  • Knowledge can be very powerful. Learn about the disease, treatment, financial issues, etc.
  • Carry water and snacks. Unexpected waits often happen.
  • Set up a support system for yourself, allowing for breaks and mentoring. Accept or ask for help from others. Get a massage or a beauty treatment; pray/meditate; write in a journal; meet up with friends, walk, exercise, shop, sleep, read or cry. Do what relaxes you and helps you stay focused?
  • Consider a support group. Sharing experiences and tips with others can help.
  • Speak with a mentor. The nbmtLINK has an excellent peer mentor program.
  • Plan what you can, but know the unexpected is possible. Extra visits to the hospital and additional testing are not unusual when going through this procedure.
  • Be aware of your feelings and accept them. 
Click here to visit our website for more on caregiving. Click on Webinars/Webcasts/Podcasts and you will find our recent webinar series on caregiving. 


Our Gift to You This Holiday Season!


We're pleased to offer a FREE coloring book with any book order between now and Dec. 31, 2017. N O need to enter a coupon code. Do NOT click on the 'add to cart' for your free coloring book.  All orders placed without clicking a coloring book will automatically receive this free coloring book offer when processed from our office. Questions, contact Cindy Burke at (248) 358-1886, [email protected]. 

Click here to enter our LINK website.  
Then click on the Shop tab.

Happy Holidays 
from
 Your Friends at the nbmtLINK!





You Van Help Us Help Others! It is that time of the year. We hope that you will consider a tax-deductible donation to the nbmtLINK. Your support helps us help more patients and their families. Thank you in advance for your generous contribution. 
How Do You Celebrate Your Transplant Anniversary?
Transplant survivors celebrate two birthdays each year, the day they were born and the day of their transplant. 

We invite all survivors to celebrate by receiving a colorful card from the nbmtLINK to commemorate the day. If you would like to receive a card, please contact Cindy Burke at 800-546-5268 or email, [email protected].

Special thanks to the Meredith A. Cowden Foundation and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), proud sponsors of this program.
Peer Support Volunteers Wanted and Needed! 
 Or....maybe you need a listening ear
Want to help others navigate this journey? We are expanding this program and we are looking for peer support volunteers. Or perhaps you would love to talk to a survivor or fellow caregiver. Learn more about either or both. Please email Jennifer Gillette at [email protected]. Jen is our licensed staff social worker 
and would love to hear from you. 
T ogether, we can help others!
Visit us: 
facebook.com/National Bone Marrow Transplant Link
twitter.com/nbmtLINK
youtube.com/nbmtLINK
 Visit us on our website too: www.nbmtlink.org
Special thanks to our sponsors: Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Sanofi-Genzyme Oncology
We Invite You to Become A Link Partner!
Link Partners include cancer centers and allied partners who annually support our mission of providing psychosocial support to patients, caregivers, their families and health care professionals dedicated to helping people navigate a bone marrow transplant. If you would like to learn more about the many benefits (books, programs, hyperlink on our website, bookmark inclusion) to being a Link Partner, please do not hesitate to contact us at (248) 358-1886. Want a free bookmark which lists our many Link Partners? Let us know and we will send you one!
American Society for Blood & Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT)
Anthem, Inc.
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center
Be The Match
Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, John Theurer Cancer Center at
Hackensack UMC
Blood Marrow Transplant Program at Northside Hospital
Blood & Marrow Transplant Program, The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University
Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR)
City of Hope 
Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center
DKMS (formerly Delete Blood Cancer)
Duke Adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program
Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin
Henry Ford Transplant Institute
Incyte Corporation
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Meredith A. Cowden Foundation
Nebraska Medicine
Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine 
Spectrum Health Cancer Center
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center
UPMC CancerCenter
Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center
National Bone Marrow Transplant Link
800-546-5268