Clinic Tuesday

It's not even noon, and already it has been a huge day! We were out at the clinic today for her repeat blood draw, and we threw in an X-ray just for fun. She just needed an image of her hand to test her bone age. This will give endocrine the info they need about her suspected pubescent state. As for the blood work, I am thrilled to say it went SO MUCH BETTER! We kept her swaddled with one arm free and I played some Raffi on my phone. The tech was great and Eleanor stayed pretty calm after her initial freak out. She does not like to be restrained, but she tolerated the whole thing pretty well, even though she was beyond ready for a nap. I was convinced after the last attempt that she had bad veins and we would never get blood, but it's just not true! Blood springs eternal!!

Another great result of today was that we got her Mitotane levels back from Montreal. Mitotane levels are supposed to be monitored closely in ACC patients, but this lab in Montreal is the only place that processes them in Canada so it has been extremely tricky to execute. First off, no one knew about this lab until last month - they sent previous samples to the Mayo Clinic, but never heard back - and second of all, none of Eleanor's doctors or nurses speak French! They have now sorted it out, and the lab faxed through her results from last month. I was shocked to hear that they actually got them, these elusive levels that are so important but so difficult to obtain. But lo and behold, we got them! She's sitting at 13.4, which is a weensy bit shy of the therapeutic dose of 14. We are going to wait for the next test to get back before we attempt to up her dose. It seems to be working, so fingers crossed it is in the proper range!

We aren't scheduled to go back into the oncology clinic for another month, which is crazy, but good. It's where we should be. We go in to see endocrine next week, but that will be the last time for awhile as well. There will probably be some emergency that needs immediate attention (there always is!), but *touch wood* we will be spending way less time in clinic, and way more time living. That gives me tons of time to bury my head in the sand before our trip back to Children's in May! Hooray for denial!!

Hooray! Eleanor? Can you say hooray, too? No? Maybe next time. Shhhhhhhh...