Going to be a Great Year!

I can feel it already! I probably should catch up on all that has happened, but today's news is too important to me, so I must share! Today I got results from my PET scan, this is the big one to see if the IL-II treatment worked or not and if I'll be doing it again. The results came back GREAT! Not perfect, but great! Most of my tumors have shrunk! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so elated, it's hard to explain! So. there are a couple stipulations to my happiness, first there's still a couple tumors in my lungs that actually got a little bigger (they are still no bigger than a pencil eraser), but Dr. Akereley dismissed them as probably swollen from previous treatment. He also dismissed them because all the others were shrinking and the areas didn't absorb as much glucose as they did on the last scan (the glucose goes where cancer cells are). This is still really good news. My second stipulation is that I will be going back into the hospital on Monday for five days and out a week and back in a week. Just like last time. Round two here we go. I know it will be hard again, but I will have a much better attitude this time knowing it's now experimental and that it's actually working! I couldn't be happier. The chances of this treatment working are pretty slim, so I say thanks for all the prayers and fasting in my behalf because it worked! We picked the right treatment and I am so glad I didn't start with the clinical trial. Also, our nurse up there, LeAnn said she went to a Melanoma Conference in Florida before Thanksgiving and they are going to be setting up places that have it similar to Huntsman where they work in teams and just for Melanoma. They are saying that IL-II is the most effective treatment for melanoma and that they will be using it more now. Dr. Akereley is still learning about IL-II, mostly from watching me and will be observing a lot this next round. I think he wants to be more involved in it in the future with more patients, especially after seeing good results today!
The only other bad/good part is that I'll be spending my birthday in the hospital (the 22nd), bad cuz I'll be in the hospital and also good because I am in the hospital and the treatment is doing good things for me!
As a side note, we had an awesome Christmas and the kids were spoiled, mostly by grandparents. I will post pics maybe later when I have time. We also had Santa stop by on the 22nd to give the kids presents to tide them over till Christmas! They thought that was the neatest thing ever! Santa even made Justin and I sit on his lap! I was afraid I was going to hurt him and then Justin didn't care and totally sat on him. I'll get those up.
I also had surgery on my eye the Friday before Christmas. Nothing major and I was feeling better pretty quickly.
We also celebrated Justin's birthday right before Christmas. Lots of busy times!