Aha! Red blood cells are normal this week, platelets are normal. Leukocytes are normal and liver is returning to normal. Good grief, could it be that I'm 'normalising'? if it wasn't for those damn cancerous cells circulating round like hungry sharks I could celebrate (only not with alcohol as I'm still banned!)

Dr. M seemed happy to put me on Sprycel/Dasatinib which you only have to take once a day once Oliver is in the clear. But I've asked for Tasigna/Nilotinib which has to be taken twice a day on an empty stomach because it seems to have fewer side effects, most particularly less people feeling tired and with less weight gain. I figure that I can be a better Mum if I have more energy, so it's got to be worth the medication constrictions

Double Booking

I have been double booked! Not in the exciting, "woohoo, I have two party invites for the same day, ooh, which to choose?" type excitement. No, it seems I am wanted at two different hospitals at the same time for a varied selection of investigative probings and exams - NOT really the same thing at all. Though some people probably get excited about probings and examinations, sadly; I am not one of them.

I have to be at The Toronto Western Hospital on 8th December at 11am for a Portal Vein Doplar (something sonic echoey a bit like whales talking to each other?) and an Ultrasound (to see my bouncing not-a-baby liver) AND I have to be at Mount Sinai Hospital at 8:30am for a PFT (Pretty Fucking Traumatic test?) followed by a 10:15 Mugga injection and scan. How amazing. You wait all year, trying to avoid invasive and stressfull examinations and suddenly three come along at once!

I'm not sure what these tests involve so far but I'm pretty sure I'll have to re-schedule some of them. The PFT is a lung check and the Mugga jobby is a nuclear medicine test with a gamma camera, so I might be glowing in the dark after that one, which will be useful next time I can't sleep and have to get up at four in the morning - at least I will be able to see my way down the stairs in the dark! They're both checks that need to be done if I'm going to start the Tasigna/Nilotinib.

The Portal Vein Doplar and Ultrasound are both checks on my liver, which hopefully don't involve the stabbing of long needles as used the last time a Doctor showed interest in my liver. The walk between the two hospitals takes 22 minutes according to Google Map (so nice that it gives me walking directions as well as driving) so I'm guessing I'll have to defer the portal vein doplar test at Toronto Western.