Detlef starting feeling ill around Friday December 30th. He had some fatigue and pain in is his calf which continued to get worse over the week-end. He decided to just stay home on New Year's Eve, and take it easy. By Monday January 2nd, he asked Karma to come and pick up Chance because he was having a hard time getting around, and also told Karma that if he wasn't better by Tuesday, he would need to go to the doctor. By Tuesday his leg was still aching, but he felt like he could ride his bike to work. When he got to work, and got off his bike, he felt like he was going to pass out. He just sat down on the curb until he felt better, and then called Karma from his office and told her that he needed to go to the doctor. He also had an unexplained bruise on the inside of his knee. He still didn't feel any urgency at that time, and so Karma and Detlef had lunch that day. He had a new insurance company, and they decided to just show up at the doctor's office, and they agreed to see him.
The doctor saw him within 10 minutes, and ordered some blood work, which was drawn, and run at the same facility. Detlef and Karma stayed at the office to see what the results were. The doctor got the results, spoke with the oncologist Dr. Kogel, and broke the news to Detlef and Karma, that he had some form of leukemia. The type of leukemia was not known at that time. They admitted him to the hospital, did an ultrasound of his calf, and found a blood clot was there. The oncologist came in, and said that they were going to run more tests which included a bone marrow biopsy. Usually they would put him under anesthesia for this (because it is very painful), but she didn't want to wait. So, lucky Detlef, they went ahead, and took some bone marrow from the bone in his hip. Detlef was not thrilled about this because it was very painful.
Karma said that the goal has been to get things done as quickly as possible to get to the bottom of everything, and begin treatment sooner rather than later. Both Karma and Detlef have been impressed by the speed at which everything has come together. On the other hand, going to the doctor feeling a little poorly, and coming out with a diagnosis of leukemia was very unsettling.
On Tuesday, Karma started calling everyone, and breaking the news to friends and family. Dietmar and Jennifer were driving back from skiing, and they drove to the hospital. Juergen came to the hospital as well, and the doctor met with Juergen and Karma and gave them the plan of action. They started him on a mild chemotherapy medication by mouth to help start bringing down his white blood count.
On Wednesday, Karma, Dietmar and Jennifer came, and spent time with the doctor, and they decided to wait on chemotherapy until they were sure which type of leukemia he had. This was the day they did the bone marrow biopsy. He had a blood transfusion on Wednesday because his red blood cell count was down.
On Thursday more results came back, and the doctor met with everyone to tell them the plan.
Also on Thursday, the doctors placed a very large central line in Detlef's chest. This line has 3 different places where they can give Detlef medications, as well as draw out blood tests. Because of the clot in Detlef's calf (which was caused by his leukemia), they were worried about pieces of it breaking off and going to his lungs, so they placed a little basket in a large vein in his chest to keep little clots from making their way into his lungs. They also started him on a medication to thin his blood to help get rid of the clot in his calf. As of today, the clot was much smaller. Luckily, Jennifer (who has administered all of these chemo agents in her practice) was there to find out what the plan for chemotherapy was going to be. I spoke with Jennifer Thursday night, and she gave me the run down of what was going to happen today. In case anyone is wondering, Jennifer is amazingly bright, talented, and has as much training as most medical doctors, only she treats animals! She is incredible.
This should tell most of the story. I will post some more Friday night post-chemo updates shortly. Love to all our friends and family.
Lisa
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