Many Thanks to the Tranplant Team at Duke

As we head home today, our hearts are full of gratitude for the physicians (Dr. Gasparetto), coordinators (Jill), physician extenders (Amanda and Brent), and nurses (too numerous to name!) who have so professionally and passionately cared for Ernie these past 18 days. We hope to never forget the wonderful people we have met here, and thought putting faces with names would be helpful for everyone to picture the very real people we have been spending time with.

First we have Amanda Yopp and Cristina Gasparetto (I will attempt to get another picture with her eyes open!), our primary contact and doctor. What special ladies they are and we are privileged to have Ernie under their care.

This picture is of Dr. Chao, Director of the Transplant Program, making rounds and checking in on all the patients. The pictures on the walls in the background are of transplant survivors, showing the year they had their transplant.

Brent has been our PA for the past two weeks and does such a thorough job explaining all the lab results and keeping us encouraged and on track.

This is Susan who has been with Duke for 23 years and was the first nurse hired for the ABMT Clinic. She hooked Ernie up to the aphresis machine to harvest his stem cells and also took care of him on many days, drawing labs, and making sure he had a bed.

This is Allison, the nurse who actually transplanted Ernie's thawed stem cells and warned me about the "corn smell". Such a sweet girl!

Meet Miss Pearl...also known as the prayer warrior! What a sweet lady with such a joyful spirit!

This is Kim, a wonderful nurse, who recently returned to Duke after moving away to care for her father as he battled lung cancer. We had the pleasure of introducing her to her first Bojangles Bo-Berry Biscuit...she loved it!

This is Matt, our only male nurse. He is awesome and Ernie always enjoyed being under his care.

And this is Rick...a fellow MM transplant patient. Rick is from Charlotte and will undergo his transplant at the end of the month.

This is Charlie, and his wife Vickie, from Virginia. He has MM and is currently a Hospice Pastor, having had his transplant 10 days after Ernie.

This is Master Sergeant Earl and his wife Andria. He works with ROTC out of Ft. Bragg, has leukemia, and received his son's stem cells. He is our inspiration as he and Andria walk laps and often do 17, which is a mile!

Cookie and Paul live on Lake Norman and he has myelodysplastic syndrome, which is pre-leukemia. He received donor stem cells from Germany and was almost an identical match!

We have met some wonderful people and will continue to pray for them on their journey with cancer.