As usual, it’s been about a month since I last posted. Mostly that’s because things just move slowly past the initial rush to get things sorted out.
I’m approaching the end of my 2nd cycle on my adjuvant treatment. This means I have only 41 more weeks to go!
Some folks have asked me what the chemo is like. It’s going to be different for everyone. Probably the most interesting thing is the fatigue. This is due to the chemo messing with your system to suppress the growth of the bad stuff. For example, I went for a nice walk in the park with the dogs and my wife today while the kids were at cross country practice. It was 85 degrees during my hour walk. That heat zapped my energy. Even after dinner I still feel fatigued.
I believe this means the chemo is working.
One more interesting thing happened to me this weekend. This is called buring the lede. I left on Sunday around 9:30 to pick up my daughter from a sleepover. On my way out, I saw my neighbor across the street. We hadn’t had a long conversation since before my treatment in April. I asked him what was going on with the landscaping crews yesterday and he had asked what I had been up to. I told him, that was a loaded question. Of course, he asked, and I told him that I had cancer. After a bit, he asked me what kind of cancer. When I told him ocular, I saw a face I had never seen before when speaking about this disease. It wasn’t the "I have no idea you could get cancer in the eyeball face". He said, "I know something about that. Ten years ago, they saw something in my eye. I ended up going to a specialist who told me I needed to see a different specialist on this. It looks like melanoma."
Jaw. Meet. Floor.
He continued, "I asked them where to go, and they reccomended I see a doctor down in Cincinnati. So I went there. When I got there I was ready to have the eye removed. Instead the doctor said he wanted to take a biopsy first, because he couldn’t tell if it was cancerous or just a nevi. The biopsy came back inconculsive." For the past ten years, he’s been having eye scans done to see if it will begin to look cancerous. Doc told him that he thinks it will turn eventually.
I must be honest, I hadn’t heard of just biopsy before you apply the plaque. It’s now a question for my doctor. Not because I wish I hadn’t had the plaque done, but because, it’s interesting. And, I wanted to let her know she might have a new patient since his doc in Cincinnati is going to retire.
There are other ocular melanoma patients around me. Some a few towns over. But I didn’t think that several years ago, I’d happen to move across the street from someone who knows something about what I’m going through.