The first Thursday of the month is the day I set aside to get my monthly blood test, which serves as a check on my ovarian cancer. With yesterday's storm, I decided to wait a day.

This morning, my husband and I headed over to the lab within The Ottawa Hospital's Cancer Centre. This is an efficient little lab, reserved for Cancer Centre patients.

I used it frequently when I was receiving chemotherapy, often having to go to the lab as soon as it opened at 7:30 AM to check whether my neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) were high enough for my treatment to proceed. After my blood was drawn, I would go up to the waiting area outside the section where chemotherapy was administered to await the results. Within 30 minutes or so, I would receive a notice that I had a new test result in MyChart. I would open it frantically to see whether I had passed. Miraculously, I did pass—every single time. Sometimes, my neutrophils had reached the bare minimum required for my procedure to continue, but it was enough.

I've continued to use the Cancer Centre lab since my chemotherapy ended because the results are delivered to me so quickly, which always lessens the worry I have on Blood Work Day.

This afternoon, when I told my mom that today's CA125 result was, once again, an 8, she asked me how long it had been since my levels were in the normal range. I calculated that this is the fortieth month since I received my first notification that my CA125 was below 35. That welcome news had come through MyChart while I sat in a bed in the Cancer Centre receiving my fourth round of chemotherapy.

I'm just as excited to get that normal, low result the fortieth time as I was the first time.