Visitors, Family, New Friends...

So... let me take some time to tell you about my great friends, family, Chris's friends and family...and about our new Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital friends...
My parents have been extremely supportive.. I do not know what we would do without them... Without any hesitation, they offered for him to move in with us... Just as they thought I would be moving out with him... we gained a new housemate.. lol...
My brother (outside of my normal brother-sister issues with him) is awesome... between being there for me, coming to see Chris in the hospital every other day when he was in that first month, and helping me move everything out of Chris's apartment into storage and my house...

Chris's grandma and Aunt Cathy came to see Chris every Saturday when he was in that first month. It made Chris very happy to get to see them... Aunt Roseann is is awesome... She has a lot of experience and knowledge in the medical industry and has been in touch with Dr Strair. She checked into his leukemia with the people she knows, and its very reassuring to know she is so on top of things! When she was in NJ in June, she came to see Chris at the hospital... I unfortunately did not get to meet her. Lew is unfortunately all the way in Florida, but having him a phone call away is very good... Chris gets regular phone calls with his lil brother... Another brother, Matt, came to see Chris at the hospital as well... It was great to meet him..

My best girlfriends and my lil cousin Lauren -- I do not know what I would do without them,,, between Christine Rapach always being there for a visit after work at the hospital or dinner or drink... walking down to a Rutgers eatery... bringing Chris his Incredible Hulk toy and keeping us company, etc... Then, Christine Rabbath, even though she is busy with lil baby Ben, always calling to check in, coming to stop in at JFK ICU, bringing us yummy treats once Chris got home from the hospital... and Jeanie... there whenever we need her... came to visit multiple times..always offering help... Hearing from lil Liv always makes Chris smile... My cousin Lauren, also visiting, keeping me company at home and in hospital... coming through with a tape recorder for the first meeting with Dr Strair... I love you guys and I hope you all know how much you mean to me and Chris...

Our first nurse at Robert Wood was Laura.. she made the transition to the hospital a pleasure... Then there was Mary.. I mentioned her in another post. She cried and prayed with Chris... I will always remember her. Maria, so sweet. Debbie, the head nurse on Day Shift. She is like a mom for Chris... One of my personal favorites is Kachi.. She is the head night nurse. I absolutely love her. She has a few lil kids at home, one being a baby. She was there for Chris and me on a few nights that were not so good for Chris. She was there when Chris got very sick (the night he started crashing).. She was also there one night when he was back up on the 5th floor after recovering from the crash. Chris was on some drug that made him pretty silly. And, he wound up sleep-walking sorta... he freaked me out a lil cus it was the middle of the night, I woke up, and there is Chris walking with the IV tower to the bathroom.. but he looked like he was on a mission... he started telling me about Superman (or Batman... i cannot really remember now) But, he was very serious.. it was quite funny... and I think I touched on this in a previous post.. sorry
but back to Kachi.. I ran out to let her know and she helped get Chris settled... She is compassionate and great!! Everytime Chris is on the 5th floor, she stops by and makes our being there as best as possible...
There are so many great nurses on the 5th floor... Grace Mary, Sue, Beada, Bee (the same day chemo suite nurse), Glydis, Jolenta (the Polish Force-- she is very serious but so sweet once you get to know her), Nesrin, Mark (newer very attractive nurse that i would hook up with a single girl in a heartbeat), Ade (he is soooo sweet), a nurse that we loved who took care of him after his 2nd round of chemo (end of july), Emmanuael, then the 4th floor nurses, Nancy and Tracy are awesome too

Dr Strair is seriously amazing... extremely good at what he does, but awesome to talk to, answers my million questions and i really appreciate that... his team is pretty good... although we always miss Strair when someone else is doing rounds... Dr Sadov, is great. Alex Gattman, Dr Naylor-- love them too... I wont mention the others but you get the drift...

Chris's friend Johanna from back in the day made a bunch of trips down here to see Chris. And some old Clifton friends came down to visit. This is a shitty time for Chris and for all of us, but having great people around us makes it so much better... and I apologize if I forgot to mention anyone in this post.