Information and Resources from the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center

Creating Home Away From Home:
10 tips for finding comfort when visiting Ann Arbor for treatment

Marilena Hatzistamou had a panic attack early this year: She felt like she couldn't breathe. A chest X-ray taken at a hospital in her native Greece showed a four-inch mass sitting in her lung. So Marilena and her mother, Kathie Karagianni, boarded a plane in early March and flew to the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center for a biopsy.
Marilena Hatzistamou knows all too well what it's like to be homesick: A native of Greece, she lived in Ann Arbor for more than six months during treatment.

Learn more on our Finding the Basics web page.

They packed enough clothes for about a month. That was before they knew Marilena had Hodgkin's disease. Six months, a birthday and two seasons later, mom and daughter were tentatively making plans to finally return to Athens.

"We have two worlds," said Kathie, who is originally from Birmingham, Mich., and still maintains close ties to family locally. "But of course Greece is home. That's where our house is, it's where our books are."

And it's where Dad is.

And the family Chihuahua, Ritsa.

And friends.

And University of Pireaus, where 20-year old Marilena studies computer science.

Not to mention the general flow and comfort of their everyday lives.

Marilena has traveled farther than most U-M Cancer Center patients, but the issues she encountered as she uprooted her life to undergo treatment are not unique. We've put together a list of tips to help you feel more at home -- even when you're not.

Continue to read our ten tips

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