saw my oncologist last week

Hey you guys,
Just updating.......my levels look good-except for my AST-which is a liver enzyme-so they are running the blood thru another test.
My blood pressure was great as well as my pulse.
I had a long talk with Dr. Forte about gene mutation testing-he is having the original pathologist check some things-we're specifically looking for what type of exon the gene mutation is. The gene mutation test that is available is not FDA approved-and my health insurance probably wouldn't cover it-and-regardless of what the test said-Dr. Forte said I will be on Gleevec for the rest of my life-unless of course we get some evidence that I can be taken off of the drug-or-I have to go to a much stronger drug. I brought in an article about gene mutation testing and showed him-he had heard of the test-and took me seriously-so he is asking the pathologist to take another look see-"we certainly have enough tissue"-Dr. Forte said laughingly-referring to the 17 lb tumor.
He also told me I was an A Typical patient-especially for being a musician. I asked him what he meant by that-he told me that no one comes in armed with info like I do, nor, can they even discuss things like gene mutations-exons, Kit protein etc. We talked for a very long time-looked at articles on the web-articles that he has been collecting etc. It was a good meeting.
In November-we do a cat scan to see if there are any tumors.
By the way-he said sitting in the sun for vitamin D is only for teenagers and younger-it doesn't work on adults.
And lastly-at the end of our meeting we talked about jazz-which we always do. He talked about the Jersey Jazz Society-I told him the head guy for that lives in Montclair and he never answers my emails-he told me to use his name-ha! So there ya go-Dr. Forte is keeping me healthy-and forwarding my career-bonus.
Thank you all for being "my team" and for all of the support you have given me-there is just no way I could have gone thru and continue to go thru any of this without you.
love,
Diane