A Brand New Year Full of Hope!!

I hope that everyone enjoyed the holidays doing whatever you and your family & friends do to celebrate!! It has been so absolutely beautiful here with barely any snow but lots of nice, warm days to enjoy. Christmas was great spending time with the family. The kids were up at the crack of dawn Christmas morning not able to sleep because of all the excitement; although Kaden was up because he was sick, so needless to say there wasn't much sleep going on in this house. So we were up and finished opening presents by 8 am. I think that's a record around here! Christmas basically lasted all week going out to visit lots of family. It's so great catching up with every one. We headed up to visit Jeff's family for New Year's which was really nice. We rang in the New Year and had a blast playing cards and of course watching the hockey game!! Then it was time to head home back to reality and yep...work.

So my kids were curious why mom seemed so happy to be returning to work and when Gavin asked me "Why are you so excited to be going back to work?" all I could think of to say was "because I can". Being able to return back to life for me right now is like a second chance. It couldn't come at a more perfect time in my eyes. A brand new year, a fresh start, a beginning full of hope. I look at 2012 like I have never looked at any other year before. I am very hopeful that this year will be a year without cancer, a year that will not be as stressful as the last two, a year with less worry and fear. I don't go back to Cancer Care or have any other scans until the beginning of March so for the next couple of months I can move forward and really enjoy life, finally!! Now, I know that getting excited about having 2 months away from hospitals, doctors, needles and scans may not seem like that big of a deal to most of you but to me it means two whole months to catch my breathe, build myself back up (physically, emotionally, and of course financially) and enjoy this time with my family having fun. I am going to do everything that I can to make sure that my body keeps fighting this cancer for as long as possible. I have already made some significant changes in my lifestyle (nutrition and exercise) and am feeling great because of it!

Melanoma has been making it into the news again lately with new clinical trials starting in Canada within the next couple of months. It is a new immune therapy treatment which has been showing positive results in the States. Researchers are doing alot of work in this area and it seems to be paying off. Instead of going in and trying to kill the cancer (which is difficult without killing the patient) they are looking more at boosting your immune system so that your body can go in and do it for you. Training your own system to tag and take down those nasty cells. It is very exciting for melanoma patients since for so long there has been little or no advancement in treatment options. It is nice to know that we are getting that much closer to a cure. It brings alot of hope to those of us with this disease and our families.

The kids are getting geared up to get back to school on Monday and we (well, Jeff and I anyway) are looking forward to settling into a new routine.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their holidays with their loved ones and that 2012 will be full of great health, happiness and love for you all!!