March 2004 was dedicated to high-dose chemo inside a sterile room.

The principle is like this:
The patient receives a high dose chemo which in principle would be lethal if the patient was not contained within a sterile environment, because the bone marrow is completely killed by the chemo.

After succesful kill, the patient receives his/her stem cells, which were gained after an earlier high-dose chemo (in my case, high dose Cyclophosphamid).

As my own stem cells were re-implanted, there was no problem with compatibility.

Actually, my immune system has become better than it ever was after it was completely killed and restarted.

By the way, no contact lenses were allowed inside sterile room, so I had to wear glasses:-(

I had decided to take my digicam with me; also I took my laptop, to be able to watch DVDs and surf the internet:-)

I had received a jugular catheder (= a central venous access through the jugular vein - the catheder entered my jugular vein at the left side of my throat and went till right to my heart inside my jugular vein).

My Port-A-Cath could not be used inside sterile room. It had too little capacity and the risk of it becoming congested was too big, with my veins still kaputt.

To avoid Catheter Congestion, all patients inside sterile room receive a 24h-a-day infusion of water with NaCl.

This "permanent infusion" means that one has to sleep with a thin plastic tube going inside the body.
And you have to carry the tube around carefully when moving inside the room (OK, one doesn't move around too much inside sterile room; but you have to go to the table for eating and well, you have to go wash yourself with iodine every day).

The catheter tube must not touch the floor, as the floor is not sterile.

So you end up handling the catheter tube with every step you take.

This was the one thing I really found nerving.
Oh well, this and the fact that there was no toilet inside the sterile room, just a bedpan inside a wheel chair.

Apart from these two things, it not so hard to be inside the sterile room as one might think.

Just make sure to take enough things with you to keep you busy.
And don't rely just on Television.