Your health care provider will ask you about your health record and do a physical exam. You will also have many tests before your treatment begins.

Your doctor or nurse should discuss the emotional stress of having a bone marrow transplant. You may want to meet with a mental health counselor talk. Talking with your family and children to help them understand and prepare is important.

You will need to make plans for when you have the transplant. Items to consider are:

• Household chores
• Care of pets
• Payment of bills
• Bank or financial statements
• Schedules and care for your children
• Insurance coverage
• Arranging medical leave from work
• Advanced care directives

You may need to find housing for yourself or your family near the hospital.

Before the transplant, one or two catheters are inserted into larger blood vessels, usually in the neck, for you to receive treatments, fluids, and sometimes nutrition.