My mind having been made up, I now wrestled with a new set of problems related to having my treatments in Boston, almost three thousand miles away from my home and family in southern California. I had received a list of hotels that served the area of the hospital. These would be familiar with patients from the thoracic surgery department and their needs. At prices ranging from $150 per day and up, it was immediately apparent to me that I couldn’t afford this. I was expected to be in hospital for seven to fourteen days but would be required to stay in Boston at least for another two weeks, and possibly more, to ensure proper follow up and care. This meant that my wife and family would have to take turns flying out and staying in a hotel, buying restaurant meals etc. for over a month at a total cost well in excess of $6,000. This would be in addition to my costs for the hospital stay. At least the hospital costs were likely to be handled by my insurance company, but the other costs were becoming a huge problem.

I worked through the thoracic surgery co-ordinator to find a local apartment building that rented spare rooms for a month at a time, at a cost of $80 per night. This turned out to be a sparsely furnished bachelor unit with only a bar fridge, a double bed, and a single chair with a card table. This was hardly sufficient and nearly drove me crazy before I got to check out, but it was all I could afford and in that regard it was a blessing.

The cost of my airfares proved to be another challenge. I investigated the Angel’s Network, a service for cancer patients and families run by a charitable foundation. Having arranged for a regular flight, a cancer patient could then contact them to find spare seats on corporate jets that would be provided for free. I discovered, however, that the LA to Boston route or the reverse just wasn’t popular enough and flying to NY and then taking commercial flights from there to Boston wasn’t practical. I did speak to a supervisor of the airline where I had my frequent flier plan and they offered me a compassionate rate that was almost a third less than the usual airfare. This was greatly appreciated but still cost a great deal of money to fly my family and me back and forth.

The extensive time it took to track down all of these details and make plans for the trip consumed my days and distracted me from thinking about the ordeal ahead. Staying busy turned out to be a wonderful medicine for self-pity, which would undoubtedly have consumed me had I sat around dwelling on my fate.