Yesterday's Toronto trip

I promised that I'd talk about my appointment in Toronto. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but my oncologist referred me to a clinical trial at Princess Margaret Hospital. Apparently there are about 200 known DNA mutations in different cancers and they're going to figure out whether my tumours have any of those mutations. They've found some treatments that can target those mutations as well.

If another mutation becomes known they'll test my tissue for that, too. They'll even send my oncologist the results to my oncologist so that if the mutations are associated with treatments I can get those treatments. I had thought they were looking for new mutations but they're not doing that; they're just working with what's known.

While I was there, they took my blood so that they could compare generalized mutations (the ones that would show up in my bloodwork and tumour) from cancer-specific mutations. Because I was traveling throughout the day I didn't have as much water as I normally do so I was a bit dehydrated. As a result, the technician who came to take my blood couldn't get any out of my (admittedly pathetic) veins. She walked me down to another place and they accessed my port. I hadn't wanted to go down to the lab because I'd heard that they can take a long time but they weren't busy at all.

After all that, it took my three hours to get home when it should have taken an hour and a half. Poor Gozer was home all by herself for almost eight hours :( When Ian got home he could hear her barking because she was alone. At least we don't have to leave her alone like that very often.