Sorry to hear of your troubles Frank.
  Although you've got a DVD writer now, might still be worth investing in one of these, or something similar.  
http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4004987  All of my home PC documents are stored in one folder so all I have to do is
 drag the folder over once a week. It's big enough to store all of my music and my work files and small enough to carry around in my man purse. 
 As well so as long as there's a PC/laptop around with usb/firewire and an Internet connection, I can work pretty much anywhere (unlike Dubbya!)