Wednesday January 18th, 2012

Today I got a couple of texts from Detlef that made my day. The first one came about 1 pm, and said "No cancer found in my CNS :)" What that means is that the spinal tap results came back, and there were no cancer cells found. Big celebration inserted right here!!!!! CNS stands for Central Nervous System. Your spinal fluid is in your spinal cord, but it also circulates around your brain. If they had found cancer cells there, they would have been hanging out in places that could cause more problems in the long run, so now we can just focus on what is happening in his bone marrow, and not have to worry about his entire central nervous system! Huge relief.

The second text message came about 2:45 pm from Detlef. "So, as a quick status update, I'm back to work via the hospital connection. My health and mind are eerily fantastic. It looks like all those positive thoughts and prayers are coming through and working!" I'm not sure that I need to add anything else, although, I'm keeping my prayers and positive thoughts headed in Detlef's direction!

Thank you all for continuing to stay updated on things. Last night after I posted my blog comment, I went back and read Dietmar's answer to Tammy's question about how to get on the bone marrow registry. Basically we would be getting registered for anyone who might need a bone marrow transplant, not just Detlef. If Dietmar is not a match, then Detlef might be receiving a bone marrow transplant from someone like us, who decided to be tested, and get on the registry because someone we know or love has leukemia. What a gift of life we can give to someone else in need. The good thing about a bone marrow transplant, is that it doesn't have any long term effect on the donor. If you were to compare donating a kidney to a total stranger, you don't get your kidney back. With bone marrow, your body continues to reproduce it, so other than some small discomfort, it won't cause you problems long term, but you could save someone's life. Again, check out Dietmar's comment for directions on how to donate. If the cost is prohibitive, stay posted for a possible fund raiser that could pay for this cost.

Love from all of us!

Lisa