If you have checked all the HSCT Facebook groups before, you will know there are innumerable suggestions and lists of what to pack to take to whatever the clinic you have chosen to go to. For what it's worth, this is my suggestion for what to pack. Let me remind you, however, that I am a man who is currently fairly mobile and who has an EDSS score of about 3.5 to 4.This will obviously affect the sorts of things that I am going to have taken.
I will tell you more detail about these sections at the bottom.
Technology:
Toiletries:
- Toothpaste
- Deodorant
- Cordosyl Daily Mouthwash (dentist advised)
- Floss/silicon dental picks
- Tena Pads for men
Cleaning Products:
- Dettol/Antibacterial wipes
- Screen wipes for technology
- Antibacterial handwash for flights/transit
- Pack of face masks /(for transit)
- Plastic/latex gloves for transit (I forgot these)
Random:
- Penknife
- Some of my own cutlery just in case - not needed
- Tea towel/cloth - not needed
- Books
- Magazines/puzzle books
- Things to occupy yourself
- Brand new/sealed pack of cards?
- Foldaway walking stick
Clothing:
- 7 prs underwear
- 7 prs socks
- decent slippers (I took lovely boot slippers)
- I took 2 pairs of shoes and a pair of flip flops for shower etc - I only used one pair of shoes the whole time, the others were superfluous.
- 3 prs sweat/lounge pants. Very useful.
- 1/2 prs jeans
- A bunch of T-shirts
- A couple of long-sleeved T-shirts
- A few jumpers/hoodies
- 1 warm jacket
- 4 different style hats given eventual lack of hair...
Food:
- Cinnamon
- Favourite spice/flavouring to flavour your food
- Tea bags (they provide them, but if you like your tea...)
- Microwave rice packs
- Decent noodle pots
- Fruit and nut packs
- Snack bars (Naked Bars etc.)
- Compact cereal packet
People will have their own needs and their own ideas here. As it turns out, there are a number of things I didn't use at all. Indeed, I brought half the food back home that I took out in my suitcase! It depends whether you like the food that they could provide for you or not. If you like the food, you're going to eat less of your own food. If you don't like their food, you're going to eat more of your own food. This is what I returned with:
I spent an awful lot of time on my technology so bringing out the right technology was important for me. I bought a half decent webcam before I left because I wanted to make Skyping them. I also wanted to make video diaries whilst our lives out there and I wanted the quality of those videos to be fairly good.
The reason I took headphones with a decent mic is because I can barely feel my fingers and so typing is very difficult for me. I use a program on my laptop called Dragon Naturally Speaking which converts my speech into text. Therefore, a good pair of headphones with a mic was really important.
Using speech to text on your mobile phone, if you don't already do you do it, is a real must for those who lack feeling in their fingers and fingertips. You can get various keyboards on your phone that do it and Android phones already provide a keyboard that does it anyway.
You will be spending some 10 days in isolation where you will have to wear hospital whites. As a result, you will find that you will wear fewer clothes that you take out with you than you anticipated. It's very easy to over-pack and take too many things thinking of all these different scenarios but the simple truth is you are going to be stuck in one room for 30 days. You might get out for one or two days to see the city of Moscow. In this case, you need to be prepared for those occasions. But other than that, you will be living a very simple and sparse life. Don't overdo it.
The reason I haven't put too much food on my list there is that you get to go to the local shop, which is a mere five minutes away. The shop has loads of stuff in. Not only that, but when you are in isolation or unable to get to the shop, other people are good enough to go there for you and will take orders from you via social media. So although it is easy to take a load of food out from whatever country you are travelling from, it is just as easy to buy a bunch of food from the local shop that will do just as good a job.
Again, as far as toiletries are concerned, in isolation, you will have two wash your mouth with red mouthwash and wash your body with particular bottles of liquid that they provide for you. Therefore, you will not be using all those toiletries that you might imagine.
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