Higher and Higher

 Platelets of 30k today (best they've been in a year or more!!!) and got to skip another transfusion, woo!!! I'm trying not to get too, too excited because its so soon, but we're moving on up baby!! My goal after one month of positive results (knock on wood!) is to FINALLY get back to New York City for a much needed vacation! So, keep doing those platelet dances everyone. They're working!! =)

Positive Randomness

   I'm not a superstitious person but I like to believe that sometimes the universe sends us signs to believe in. 

  On Wednesday my pre-transfusion test results came back with a platelet count of 11, and then on Friday they were 23 and I was sent me home without a transfusion for the first time in months! It was an EXTREMELY positive thing and I got through five symptom-free, platelet transfusion-free days this week,which was something that even last week I wouldn't have even been able to fathom. Even today I don't even think I really needed a transfusion. 

I knew my counts had dropped, but I was still hoping they were still in a good range. So when they came back at 1 again it was really disheartening and frustrating to have to go through another transfusion.  There was a problem in the lab and they apparently had to do the test twice to get a conclusive result. My doctor was a bit puzzled because he said he would've expected my counts to have stayed high, especially when I was symptom-free. So with the strangeness in the lab he thought they're might have been a mistake with the test. The lab technician said not though. I'm not sure what to think. Either way I hate being launched right back into the abyss of uncertainty again. 

 When this all started months ago we tried to contact my childhood doctor in hopes that he might have some insight into the situation. But, he's unfortunately retired now and though he still does a bit of administrative work at Sick Kids he just happened to be leaving the country for over a month at that time. I haven't seen him for a good 6-7 years and short of a couple of E-mails back and forth we didn't really end up having any contact with him this time around. But leaving the hospital today, we ran into him on the street, which after today's setback, I can't help but think was one of those random signs. He was my doctor from birth minute to the age of 18 and he got me through A LOT of hard times. In more ways than one I wouldn't be  here today without him.  He says I got through it once and I'll get through it again, which meant a lot coming from him. 

We also passed by Rick Mercer on the street and if that's not a positive sign I don't know what is! *hehe* 

 

Spiraling in and Spiraling Out

   Yesterday was the Spiral Garden planting day. Summer is officially here!!!

  Photos courtesy of Tara McWatters

    

 The site is sadly still just a shadow of it's former twenty-five year-old self, a fledgling garden whose carefully groomed paths scream for the colourful randomness that some of us so fondly remember. But the incredible energy that doesn't exist anywhere else is there and always will be. We couldn't have asked for better weather and it was wonderful to see everyone and perhaps the best part, to have kids from the Centre come out and join us for the first time in years, yay!! There are lots of changes coming this summer, some that will take some getting used to, but a lot that are really cool that really excite me. I'm really considering volunteering for a session or two this summer...  

   

 

 

A new love for my city

  Okay so Nat, this one's for you=). I'm actually intrigued by Toronto today! 

More often than not I can't wait to escape the monotony of the city that I've spent the better part of my life in. But today I visited a couple of the sites on the Open Doors Toronto tour and discovered a bit of some of Toronto's best kept secrets.-- George Brown's House, Coach House Press and Queen's Park. 

First we went to George Brown's house, a grand Victorian-style house on Beverly Street that once housed the man who started the Globe and Mail newspaper, or as I prefer to call it, "the Old and Mail". He died from complications from a shotgun wound inflicted by a Globe and Mail employee, a bit of info that I can't help but love because I can't say the stresses of Journalism haven't made me want to shoot someone in the leg once in a while.=p.  The house's library includes over 2,000 books, which I was surprised to find are restored  by Toronto Parks (an unlikely pairing I thought) and apparently his daughters were among the first women to graduate from the University of Toronto.--The accomplishments of strong women are always interesting to me but I guess it struck a chord at this particular time because I've spent the last few weeks in my Feminism an Society class studying First Wave Feminism and the actions taken by women to gain equal opportunity to education. Go Brown ladies!

Next we went to Coach House Press, a small independent book publisher and printer that is literally stuffed into a small coach house hidden in a back lot on the UofT campus. I'd heard a lot about some of the book launch events that they often hold and I've purchased quite a few of their titles at Word on the Street or smaller bookstores like Pages. They tend to favour quirky urban fiction stories, which I LOVE, so needless to say I was really excited to finally get to see the real thing. However, unfortunately the Toronto Star's rating of a partial 'D' was quite inaccurate because I'm not sure I'd even begin to categorize it as "partially accessible".  Not only did the large numbers of people come to find out how a printing press works, make it virtually impossible to navigate the machines and carts piled high with dusty books and papers, the four inch step down at the front door wasn't letting me in anytime soon. I poked my head in to see as much of the printing process as I could from the top of the step but luckily I managed to get in the back door with the help of a board to see the binding and glueing process. Very cool!! I was amazed to find out how much manual labour they use to make each book.--All book covers are folded by hand and all printing and binding is personally supervised by someone. Every book!! They publish the popular UTOpia series and I was shocked to find someone folding each cover by hand. It's a very widely distributed series (today they were working on the fourth run). I've seen it at big chain book stores like Chapters. That's a lot of hand folded book covers!

I picked up 'Nellcott is my Darling' by Goulda Fried, 'Social Acupuncture' by Darren O'Donnell and 'Miss Lamp' by Chris Ewart. Now just to finish this course so I have time to read them...    

Last we went to Queen's Park, which I didn't expect to be very exciting but was pleasantly surprised. First there was the unnaturally friendly security guard we met just inside the accessible entrance who showed us where the "LG" as he called him, David Onley leaves his scooter in the basement *heh* (possibly my favourite part) and then we went on the tour that took us through the Legislature, the Speaker's Apartment (I didn't know anyone actually lived in Queen's Park!) and the wing that once burned down because of careless maintenance workers, which has a beautiful mosaic floor that is made up of millions of hand cut, hand laid tiles. WOW!! The portraits of all the past speakers were cool too. Apparently at the end of their term each one is allowed to choose the artist to paint their picture. Most of them were fairly conservative but there were a couple of more modern, flamboyant ones that didn't quite fit in=). I was also interested to find that the major media outlets (CBC, Globe and Mail etc.) all have offices there too.      

 The coolest part was he legislature though. There are several random faces carved into the intricate patterns that adorn the perimeter of the room. Not carvings of past Prime Ministers or MPPS, but carvings of the artist's faces. They apparently weren't allowed to sign their work so they left their faces behind instead=). The best face though is a small, kind of shriveled-looking face that the tour guide described as looking like a tomato. It's supposed to be a joke likeness of Queen's Park's namesake Queen Victoria. Good thing she died before she could come and see it. *Hehe*

 We wanted to try and make it to the Toronto Labyrinth (which I hadn't heard of before this year's Open Doors) and the CBC, but sadly 5:00 came too quickly and we didn't get a chance to make any of the other sites. I won't have time to get to go anywhere else this weekend but I really look forward to next year. Though next year I would like to plan to write an article critiquing the level of accessibility that the Toronto Star's map indicates for each site. I'm curious to know how they developed their accessibility criteria in the first place. I'm feeling my next pitch to Abilities. How 'bout you?      

Working woes

 I had a job interview yesterday for the summer position at RyeACCESS, the group that I worked at for four years. For reasons that I probably shouldn't discuss here (yet anyway) I knew I wasn't going to get it. But I guess working there for  so long I couldn't help but be a bit over-confident. I guess I have to practice not putting all my eggs in one basket because I was seriously shocked when they called and turned me down. And I have to say, it's really going to sting for a while yet. I think the job represented a sense of normalcy in my really uncertain life, one more thing that I was hoping to get back after everything that's happened. But everything happens for a reason right? I hope so...

I also applied for a couple of other jobs on campus earlier this month and I'm pretty sure was as good as hired for both of them. Unfortunately they were workstudy jobs though and so because I wasn't in classes last semester they wouldn't give me the funding. But it's not like I just took the semester off for fun. I was in the hospital! I'm hoping I can appeal the decision soon and grab one of the positions before it's too late. 

 Blargh I hate job hunting!  

Sister Suffragettes

  I'm finally back in the halls of academia, yay! I survived my first week of my Feminism in Society class and so far it's going pretty well. I was kind of bummed to find out at the last minute that my friend who was supposed to take the class with me couldn't get funding and so couldn't take it. But that was quickly remedied by my friend Melissa unexpectedly being in the class instead. It's fine taking summer classes by yourself but it's so much more fun taking it with someone you know=).

 Now I just wish I didn't have so much reading to catch up on... 

Elevate me darn it!

So last week I was rejoicing just as much as the next guy over being able to hop the subway again. But it was too good to be true...for me anyway. I probably should make more of a point of calling the TTC hotline to make sure elevators are working. But I don't, for the same reason I boycott Wheeltrans. I enjoy my freedom and right to be spontaneous gosh darn it!  So, as I've been doing three days a week since January, I got on the subway at Union station, rode it up the University line and got off at Queen's Park Station. Everything was fine until I discovered the elevator was broken, GAH!!! Luckily I wasn't alone because otherwise I'd have to get back on the train going in the opposite direction and get off a few stops back at Osgoode Station and then drive my scooter all the way up University Ave. Anyway, so I had to walk up the 5 trillion stairs while my dad took my scooter up the escalator. I used to do it all the time, but boy am I out of shape. It nearly killed me!! And that wasn't the only obstacle, to add insult to injury, the key fell out of my scooter and got stuck in the escalator AAA!!! Other than being willing to eventually push the button to turn off the escalator, the TTC guy refused to help. Fresh off the strike...figures=p. So my dad had to unscrew part of the escalator with a Loonie and try and retrieve my keys. Two broke and my Moxy Fruvous keychain is now in need of a new key ring part (luckily not too worse for wear otherwise though. Wouldn't want to waste all those Frumiles!) but he was miraculously able to get one out intact. I'm not sure what we would've done otherwise, oops! Now I only have one key that I'm treating like gold. I tried to get some more cut the other day but it was too specialized so they wouldn't do it. I'm going to have to order some more from the scooter company. What a hassle!!

 The most annoying part is that while I was waiting I noticed at least ten boxes stacked in the corner that were full of elevator parts. They knew it was broken and they didn't even bother to put a sign on the door, ARG!! 

 The elevator was broken at Union Station a few days later and when we told the guy in the booth about it all he did was vaguely respond with a dumb "again?" Blah, drives me up the wall!  I hardly ever meet broken elevators, and now two in the same week. What's going on?

Back!...Hopefully for good this time!

I know I promised way back in November that I'd update this blog more regularly and I apologize for not doing so. But I had a legitimate reason...I promise!

  

I'll try and spare you most of the gruesome details. But a long story short, around Christmastime the health problems that I'd been dealing with for the better part of the year caused me to have to make a few trips to the Emergency room for platelet transfusions. In January things took a turn for the worst and I was rushed to hospital and was admitted for almost a month. Since then I've been having out-patient treatments (platelet transfusions three times a week) and have tried a number of other drugs in hopes that something will do the trick. They're not quite sure what's wrong but the doctor thinks it's likely an ITP-type disorder where basically the immune system becomes overactive and attacks platelets as if they are foreign cells. They think this was likely caused by the bad flu that I got in September and they're confident that it's just a waiting game with an ending that's impossible to predict.   

I unfortunately had to drop out of school after Christmas. But, despite the fact that I'm still having transfusions three times a week and am on enough medication to kill a horse=p, I'm starting summer classes this Tuesday and will be back on the road to graduation (take 2!) in September. From the ages of 6-18 I had weekly platelet transfusions and though it was *mostly* easier than my current situation, I think it prepared me for what's going on now. I think if I hadn't already experienced this in some capacity, I wouldn't now how to deal with it. I've gotten into a bit of a routine now and the doctors and nurses are all really great. So though it sucks, it's not so bad now. I just wish I could get more than one day between transfusions.--I'm dying to travel! But for now I'll do my best to document my summer 2008 adventures in the T-dot. Now if we could just get the nice weather back!

I Want Book 5!!

I'm not usually a big chick lit person and not only that, I'm not really a fantasy person either. But that all changed when just before I left to go spend some time in New York City at NYU, my friend Dyan suggested a book called 

Enchanted Inc. that her friend Shanna Swendson had just put out. I was skeptical at best because it looked like it really couldn't get more chick lit if it tried and it was a fantasy to boot. However, the fact that the story was based in New york City hooked me because as most of you know, I can't get enough of NYC...

"ENCHANTED INC. is a magical story featuring Katie Chandler, a 20something, small-town girl who finds that being average in New York City is anything but.

Katie is still adjusting to life in the big city while working for a nightmare boss when she gets a fantastic offer to work for a mysterious company, MSI, Inc. Through her new job and the magical folk she meets, Katie comes to find out she isn't quite as average as she thought; and the fairy tale she has longed for begins to come true in surprising ways.

Katie doesn't realize how rare and important being ordinary can be. In fact, it is ordinary characteristics that make her the perfect secret weapon for MSI, Inc. Now she has magicians and faries meddling in her attempted romances, a secret life she needs to keep hidden from her non-magical friends, not to mention that dangerous pull she feels for Owen, an attractive but shy wizard who might be the most powerful man since Merlin."www.shannaswendson.com

I read it while I was away and apart from being one of the cutest page-turners I'd read in a long time, it was a lot of fun to read while actually visiting the New Yor sites descibed in the book, imagining fairies and gargoyles riding the subway and hannging out in Central Park. 

 Since then Shanna has written three more books in the Katie Chandler Series: Once Upon Stillettos Damsel Under Stress and the newest book that just came out on Tuesday (April 29th) DON"T HEX WITH TEXAS: 

"Katie Chandler has fled fast-paced Manhattan and returned home to a simpler life, working at her family's feed-and-seed store in Cobb, Texas. Leaving the sexy wizard Owen Palmer to battle his demons in the magical realm may have been a selfless gesture--after all, Katie seemed to attract evil which only made Owen's job a lot harder--but now it seems like trouble has followed her home. And despite the fact that Merlin, Katie's old boss at Magic, Spells, and Illusions Inc., has assured her that  Cobb is free of enchantment, magically speaking, Katie begins to notice curious phenomena.

Son Cobb is being plagued by a series of unexplainable petty crimes and other devilish mischief, and after her experiences in Mahattan, Katie knows "unauthorized" magic when she sees it. As this new dark magic strikes deep in the heart of Texas, Owen appears (literally) to investigate. Now Katie's friends and family must show the bad guys why it's bad luck to hex with Texas, while Katie and Owen combine their strengths like never before to uncover a sinister plot before evil takes root in the lone star state."www.shannaswendson.com

Each book is better then the next and let me tell you, once you get into the Katie and Owen drama, you won't be able to get enough! I'm about three quarters of the way through Hex (love it!) and I already can't wait to read book 5. There's just one problem...

Despite the success of the other three books (Enchanted Inc. has even been optioned by Jennifer Aniston's production company for a film!) the publisher, Ballentine Books, has declined the 5th book. They say that if Don't Hex with Texas sells enough copies they'll consider the 5th book. But until then we're flat outta luck! 

If you haven't read the Enchanted Inc. series yet, make it your summer reading and most importantly go out and get Don't Hex with Texas. Support Shanna Swendson and help the series end the way it's supposed to. You won't be disappointed. I promise!